
THE SLEEPING CUPID. 



The little eod of Love is asleep in the lap of the budding woman while she fingers his 
chub^ handald lo^ks into the woo P ds with a look part of hesitancy and part of .nqu.ry. It 
may bi that she sees her wooer in the distance and that Love is about to awake. 



WHAT, WHEN AND HOW 
THE PEOPLE'S BOOK OF 

READY REFERENCE 



A COLLECTION OF THE MOST PRACTICAL, USEFUL AND VALUABLE 
RECIPES, FORMULAS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR EVERY OCCASION 



HOUSEHOLD, MEDICAL, TOILET, AGRICULTURAL, LIVE STOCK, ORCHARD, 

GARDEN AND MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENTS FOR EVERY 

MEMBER OF EVERY FAMILY, IN TOWN OR COUNTRY 



COLLATED AND EDITED BY 



H. G. CUTLER 

AUTHOR OF "MEDICAL COLLEGES OF THE WEST" AND FORMERLY OF THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY 




10,000 RECIPES AND HANDY FACTS 



w 



Two Copies R«ceived 

MAY 4 1°03 

^ Copyright Entry 
CLASS CV XXc No. 
COPY 8. ' 



aV 






o\ 



6 



COPYRIGHT 1903 

BY 

W. R. VANSANT 



PREFACE 

In a certain sense the publisher has no more right to place a book 
upon the market which does not contain qualities peculiarly its own 
than has the inventor to put forth a mechanism which is but the copy 
of another. The difference, of course, in the situation of the two 
is that the law restrains the inventor from palming off something 
spurious upon the public, while the publisher is thrown back upon his 
sense of honor. 

It has, therefore, become a fixed custom for the latter to give his 
reasons for the publication of his works. Fortunately, in the personal 
case under consideration, this is not a difficult matter. The pub- 
lishers do not claim a unique place for their book on the score of 
originality, since it is common knowledge that Cook Books, House- 
hold Physicians, Standard Formularies, Guides for Housekeepers 
and works for farmers, gardeners and live stock men have been issued 
by the score. They do claim, however, that they have condensed 
and classified all the practical information covered by this varied and 
yet related literature, and made it available to the people — that 
theirs is truly "The People's Book" — a library between two covers, 
showing the man, woman and child of moderate means how to get 
the most good out of life. 

The publishers here take occasion to most heartily acknowledge 
the assistance which they have received from practical men and 
women everywhere, who have spoken or written upon the multitude 
of subjects which this book embraces. Through farmers' institutes 
and experiment stations, by means of lectures and contributed 
papers, through the reports of the United States Department of 
Agriculture, from the files of periodicals and the pages of published 
works and from numerous private sources of information, the mate- 

5 



6 PREFACE 

rial has been collected. So that while it is impossible to acknowledge 
here in detail their obligation in this regard, the publishers will call 
attention to the fact that proper credit in the pages of the work has 
been generously given to those upon whom the editors have drawn 
for valuable subject matter. This course has been taken, not only as 
a measure of justice to those who have thus assisted us, but to 
enhance the value of the work itself, by thus naming the special 
authorities upon whom reliance has been placed for the best practical 
information upon the subjects under consideration. 

The illustrations in the work are offered not only as an appropri- 
ate embellishment of the pages — that is, as related to the subjects 
treated in the descriptive matter — but as a means of making the book 
attractive and even artistic. It is, therefore, believed that the publi- 
cation will be found worthy of the center table, as well as invaluable 
as a constant book of reference. Having these two features it must 
prove the truest kind of a friend — both a guide in perplexity and a 
giver of pleasure. 

The publishers, therefore, present their book to the people as an 
answer to the most natural of questions which can be asked by 
humankind in the search for information, and believe that its innate 
value, as well as its comprehensiveness and attractiveness, will earn 
for it a large place in the world of practical literature. Their final 
word is, use it intelligently and you will enjoy it thoroughly. 

THE PUBLISHERS 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 
The Most Important Thing in the World 

PAGE 

Health and Its Universal Interest — Foundation Principles Are Simple — 
Duty of All to Guard Their Physical Welfare — The Human Body 
and Its Construction — Proper Pood and Its Importance — Clothing 
and Its Relation to Health — The Bath and Its Importance — Sleep 
and Its Value — Ventilation of Bedrooms 17 

CHAPTER II 

General Health Conditions 

Guard Your Water Supply — How Diseases Are Classified — How to Pre- 
vent Contagion — Care of the Sick Room — Disinfection, Its Impor- 
tance and Its Methods — Period of Isolation or Quarantine — Duty of 
All Households Where Sickness Has Invaded, to Guard Others 
against Its Spread 31 

CHAPTER III 

Common Sense in the Sick Room 

Ventilation, Light, Temperature and Furnishings — Care of the Patient — 
His Temperature and Pulse — Bed Sores — The Characteristics of 
Fever — Simple Household Remedies — What to Put in a Remedy Cup- 
board — How to Keep the Baby Well 44 

CHAPTER IV 

Condensed Rules for Emergencies 

Poisons and Their Treatment — Bites, Stings, Bruises, Splinters, Cuts, 
Sprains and Burns — Lockjaw — Poison Ivy — How to Bring the Drowned 
to Life — Suffocation — -Fainting — Sunstroke — Freezing — The Eyes 
and How to Care for Them — Earache and Toothache — Felons, Warts, 
Corns and Boils — Home Remedies for Diphtheria — Treatment of 
Smallpox— Convenient Disinfectants — Sick Room Suggestions — Fruit 
in Sickness — An Antidote for Intemperance — Milk Strippings for 

Consumption — Stammering Cured at Home 54 

7 



8 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER V 
Miscellaneous Recipes 

PAGE 

Leather Boots Made Waterproof — Glue, Cement, Mucilage and Paste — 
Ink for All Purposes — Colored Crayons and Pencils — Paint and 
Whitewash — Soft Soap and Hard Soap — Rats and How to Get Rid of 
Them — Wood Made Fireproof — To Preserve Wood from Decay — 
Furniture Repairing — To Harden Lamp Chimneys — A Hundred 
Handy Suggestions 78 

CHAPTER VI 

General Household Recipes 

Value of System in Housecleaning — Beds and Their Care — Windows, 
Doors and Woodwork — Moths, Cockroaches and Other Insects — 
Carpet, Oilcloth and Rug Suggestions — The Care of Wall Paper — 
Washday Wisdom — How to Wash Flannels without Shrinking Them 
— Successful Starching and Ironing — Removing Stains from Fabrics — 
The Care of Fine Laces — Practical Advice from Experienced Coun- 
selors 100 

CHAPTER VII 
Dining-room, Kitchen and Bedroom 

Table Linen and the Dining Table — Laundering Table Linen — Good Use 
for Worn Tablecloths — Decorating the Thanksgiving Table — Beau- 
tiful Centerpiece for the Table — The Dining-room "Handy" — Proper 
Care of Table Silver — Avoid White Wrapping Paper — How to Make 
Housework Easier — Kitchen Convenience and Comfort — A Kitchen 
"Memory Card" — Proper Ways to Wash Dishes — Dish Towels in 
Abundance — To Clean Tarnished Tin — Woodenware and Cooking 
Tins — Novel Uses for Salt — A Small Home-made Filter — Bedding for 
Winter and Summer — What to Do with Worn-out Blankets — An Easy 
Way to Clean Blankets — Cleaning Old Feather Beds — Bedbugs 
Destroyed — To Clean Hair Brushes and Combs 125 

CHAPTER VIII 
About the House 

Managing the Family Wardrobe — Dress to Make Work Easier — Oilcloth 
Aprons for the Kitchen — An Idea for Underwaists — Making Old Hats 
New — Winter Clothing for Little Girls — Teaching Little Girls to Sew 
— Some Suggestions about House Plants — Growing Ferns for Table 
Pieces — To Destroy Weeds in the Lawn — Trailing Vines for the 
Walls — Helping Flower Seeds to Grow — Shrubs for Screening Founda- 
tions — Odd Designs for the Lawn — How to Make a Rose Jar — Rose 
Leaf Suggestions — Variety in Your House Arrangements — Sofa Pil- 
lows, Some Novel Ideas — Utility Boxes 138 




ROMEO AND HIS JULIET. 

Whether the life is of the court or the kitchen, human nature and love-making 
are the same. Proposals by letter and at^Ja distance are often necessary, but the 
surest way to secure the object of your devotion is to do your courting in person. 




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CONTENTS 9 

CHAPTER IX 
Soup, Fish and Meat Recipes 

PAGE 

Something about Food Values and Nourishment — Degrees of Heat for 
Best Cooking — Practical Pointers about the Oven — Keeping Food 
from Spoiling — How to Measure for Recipes — Meat Soups — Vegetable 
Soups — Salt Fish — Fresh Fish — Dainty Dishes from Left-over Fish — 
Oysters and Clams — Chicken — Turkey — Miscellaneous Poultry Reci- 
pes — Beef — Mutton — Veal — Pork — Breakfast Dishes — Game — Fish 
and Meat Sauces 153 

CHAPTER X 

Pickles, Salads, Vegetables, Etc. 

Curing Meats — Pickles and Catsups — Salads and Salad Dressings — All 
Kinds of Vegetables — Rice Prepared in Various Ways — Macaroni and 
Spaghetti— Mushrooms — Breakfast Cereals — Egg Suggestions — Food 
Value of Eggs Compared with Meat — Egg Recipes — Cheese — Biscuits 
and Rolls 189 

CHAPTER XI 

Bread, Muffins, Cake, Puddings and Desserts 

Bread Suggestions — Muffins — Dumplings for Roasts and Soups— Cakes — 
Ginger Bread — Pancakes — Pies — Puddings, Desserts and Sauces — 
How to Prepare Fruit — Fruit Trifles — Creams, Custards and Puffs — 
Fruit Flavors — Preserving and Canning — Keeping Canned Fruit — Can- 
dies and Sweetmeats — Beverages — Cider, Etc 236 

CHAPTER XII 

Woman's Toilet 

How to Perfect and Maintain Beauty in All Its Forms — Including Instruc- 
tions and Recipes on the Care of the Complexion — Removal of 
Freckles, Blemishes, Etc. — How to Treat the Hair, Eyes, Teeth, 
Hands and Feet — Also How to Develop or Reduce the Form, with 
General Instructions for the Maintenance of Health and Beauty . . 298 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Farm 

Hygienic Points — Keeping Accounts — Fencing and Care of Machinery — 
Wood, Water and Ice — Pumping and Irrigation — How to Fertilize the 
Farm— Electricity as a Stimulant — Rotation of Crops— The Grass 
Crop— Hay Making and Measuring — Corn — Building Silos — Smutty 
Grain — Bird and Insect Pests, Etc 318 



io CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XIV 
The Garden 

PAGE 

Proper Drainage, Fertilizing and Watering — Selecting and Testing the 
Seeds — Garden Tools — The Hand Hoe — The Vegetable Garden — 
When and How to Plant Different Vegetables — Weeds and How to 
Get Rid of Them — Harvesting Vegetables — Potatoes, Cabbages, 
Cauliflower, Tomatoes, Onions, Rhubarb, Asparagus, Horseradish, 
Celery, Pumpkins, Turnips, Oyster Plant, Mushrooms and Other 
Vegetables: How to Raise Them and Properly Care for Them — Ber- 
ries, Grapes and Melons — Shrubs and Flowers — Ginseng and Peanuts 
— Insect Pests and Insecticides 365 

CHAPTER XV 

The Orchard 

Plowing and Fertilizing — Transplanting — Forcing the Blossoms and Fruit 
— Girdling and Pruning — The Apple Orchard and Its Care — Grafting 
the Old Trees — Picking, Packing and Storing the Fruit — -The Peach 
Orchard and How to Cultivate It — Plums, Pears and Cherries — Save 
the Birds — Enemies of the Orchard and How to Exterminate Them — 
Black Ants, Borers, Peach-leaf Curl, Black-knot Fungus, Curculio, 
Codlin Moth, Tent Caterpillar, Rabbits and Ground Mice .... 419 

CHAPTER XVI 

Chickens and Eggs 

Waste Products of the Dairy, Garden and Orchard as Poultry Food — 
Sunshine and Shade — Food, Water and Exercise — Choice of Breeds 
— Laying Hens and Eggs — Their Proper Care — Winter Poultry House 
and Food — Care and Preservation of Eggs — Breeding Poultry — Mother 
Hen, Incubator and Brooder — Chicks and Their Care — Meat and 
Feathers — Diseases and Pests of Chickens — Their Treatment and 
Eradication 442 

CHAPTER XVII 

Turkeys, Ducks, Geese and Pigeons 

The Feather Business — Turkeys and How to Raise Them — Ducks the 
Hardiest of Poultry — Profit in Growing Them — Selection and Care of 
Breeding Birds — The Value of Geese — Squabs as "Quail on Toast" . 470 

CHAPTER XVIII 

Horses 

Proper Horses for the Farm — Hints on Food, Feeding and General Care — 
Water and Watering — Keep the Horse Warm — The Horse Blanket — 



CONTENTS 3i 

PACK 

Care of Hair and Hoofs — Abuse of the Currycomb — The Brood Mare 
and Colt— Period of Gestation— The Colt's First Year— The Fall 
Foal — Educating the Colt — Doctoring the Horse for Worms, Lum- 
bago, Elephant Leg, Warts, Bots, Blind Staggers, Mange, Founder, 
Heaves, Etc., Etc. — How to Drive Away Flies — Mules and How to 
Fatten Them 477 

CHAPTER XIX 
Cattle 

Beef Cattle and Dehorning Them — The Dehorning of Calves and Old 
Cattle— The Dairy Cow's Food— The Best Milk Yielders— Don't 
Excite Your Milch Cow — To Dry Up a Cow — Training the Jersey Bull 
— Oats for Calving Cows — What, When and How to Feed the Calf — 
Teaching the Calf to Drink Milk — Cattle Diseases — Dry Scab, Clover 
Bloat and Eye Disease — Vaccination as a Preventive of Blackleg — 
Milk Fever, Garget and Scours — To Keep Flies Off the Dairy Herd . 489 

CHAPTER XX 

The Dairy 

Milking the Dairy Cow — Cleansing of the Pails — Straining the Milk — The 
Dairy House — Butter Making and Its Secrets — The Cellar — Keeping 
the Milk Cool — Don't Overwork Your Butter — Packing Butter for 
Winter Use — Uses of Skim Milk — Cheese Making— Home-made 
Cheese — Factory Cheese Making — Commercial Side of Dairying . . 505 

CHAPTER XXI 
J. Hogs 

Common Sense Treatment of Swine — Not a Filthy Animal — Cleanliness, 
Dryness, Sunshine, Pure Water, Healthful and Varied Food Necessary 
for Proper Raising — Portable Swine House — The Sow and Her Litter 
— Treatment Before and After Farrowing — Pig-eating Sows — Feed and 
Feeding of Swine — Green Feed — Warm Food in Winter — Curing Pork 
— Swine Diseases — Hog Cholera, Mange, Lice and Scours .... 516 

CHAPTER XXII 

Sheep and Goats 

Proper Country, the First Consideration — Sheep as Weed Exterminators 
and Fertilizers — Feed — Time for Mating- — Controlling Sex — Ewe and 
Lamb; and Best Care of Them — Mutton and Wool Sheep — Shropshires 
as Mutton Producers — Wool and Hoofs — Sheep Diseases and Dips — 
Foot Rot and Worms — How to Mend Broken Bones— A Word for the 
Goats I . . 529 



i» CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXIII 
Household Pets 

PAGE 

Birds — Their Chief Dangers: Improper Food, or Feeding, and Exposure 
to Sudden Draughts — How to Treat Them for Colds, Loss of Voice, 
Diarrhea and Costiveness — Moulting, Care of Feet, Etc. — Obstruction 
of Oil Gland — Canary Birds — Mating and Care of the Young— Mock- 
ing Birds and Parrots — Bird Foods for All — Red Bird and Robin — 
Dogs and Cats — How to Banish Fleas — The Administering of Med- 
icines — Treatment of a Mad Dog Bite — Rabbits, Mice, Rats, Etc. — 
Gold and Silver Fish 544 

CHAPTER XXIV 
Bees, Honey and Wax 

Italian Bees the Best Honey Makers— Advantages of Bee Farming — The 
Old Way and the New — Handling of Bees — Transferring and Doubling 
Up — Water and Food — Wintering of Bees — Laying Up Their Winter 
Stores — Proper Way of Feeding — Spring Dwindling — The Queen Bee 
and Her Brood — Foul Brood and How to Treat It — The Honey and 
Wax — Comb and Extracted Honey — Clarifying Honey— Adulterations 
and How to Detect Them— Beeswax— How to Prepare It .... 554 

CHAPTER XXV 
Physical and Social Training 
Physical Culture for Man, Woman and Child — Exercises to Develop 
Special Muscles — Social Forms and Etiquette — -Street Etiquette for 
Women — Visiting Etiquette and the Use of Calling Cards — Home 
Etiquette and Table Manners — Society Etiquette and Accepted Forms 
and Rules for the Wedding, the Christening and the Funeral — Con- 
versation and Social Correspondence 569 

CHAPTER XXVI 

Art of Receiving and Entertaining 

What Is Expected of the Hostess — Rules and Forms as to Invitations and 

Introductions — Suggestions about Cards and Music — Novel Forms of 

Entertainment — Dinners, Suppers, Etc. — Outdoor Amusements — 

Hints to the Hostess Regarding These and Many Other Matters . 599 

CHAPTER XXVII 
Business Training 
The Advantage of Business Methods to Everyone — Simple but Approved 
Ways of Keeping Books — Entry Book, Day Book, or Book of Original 
Entry — The Cash Book — Common Business Terms with Abbreviations 
— Journal and Ledger — Personal and Merchandise, and Profit and 
Loss Accounts — Trial Balances, Closing the Ledger, Etc 611 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The Sleeping Cupid Frontispiece 

Romeo and His Juliet 8 

Winter and Spring 9 

Class in Domestic Economy, Ohio State University 16 

Too Severe for Home Treatment 17 

Wonders of the Human Framework 32 

Sympathetic Systems of the Human Body 33 

Circulatory System and Vital Organs 64 

Injuries to Blood Vessels and Bones 65 

Simple Bandages for the Injured 80 

A Way to Carry the Unconscious 81 

Home Economics, Minnesota School of Agriculture 112 

A Kindergarten School Class 113 

Domestic Economy in the Kitchen 128 

"It's Fun to Help Mother." 129 

The Listening Joan of Arc 176 

A Martyr's Daughter 177 

A Typical New Zealand Apiary 192 

Feeding the Poultry 192 

Plenty of Air and Sunshine 193 

A Social Breathing Spell 240 

The Cowboys and Their Command 241 

Pigeon and Squab Raising 256 

Butter Making — The Old Way 257 

Butter Making — The New Way 257 

The Bride's Toilet 304 

Glory of the Coming Woman 305 

13 



i 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Plowing Match near Fort Wayne, Indiana 320 

Corn-plant Above and Below Ground 321 

Root Development of Mature Corn-plant 321 

A Field of Pumpkins Grown for Seed 352 

Shelling Corn in Mexico 352 

All from a Kernel of Wheat 353 

Onion Culture in Colorado 368 

Potato Field near Greeley, Colorado 369 

The King of Fruits in State 432 

Unique Effect in Shrubbery Trimming 433 

Foundered Foot 448 

Skeleton of the Cow 449 

Skeleton of Horse 480 

Ringbone and Navicular Disease 481 

The Nervous System 496 

Superficial Layer of Muscles 497 

Position of the Left Lung 512 

Interior of Chest, Showing Position of Heart and Diaphragm . . 513 

Washing Sheep (Chicago Stock Yards) 528 

Shearing by Machinery 529 

Anatomy of Foot 544 

Anatomy of Foot 545 

Quarter-crack and Remedies 560 

Sprains of the Loins 561 



INTRODUCTION 

The wonderful growth of human knowledge, especially within the 
past century, is perhaps due more to the division of labor, or the 
labors of the specialist, than to any other cause. Since the world is 
composed largely of inquiring, learning, practical people, the literary 
specialists have, to a great extent, devoted themselves to supplying 
the kind of information demanded by the masses. The consequence 
is that, year by year, the book market is flooded with literature, 
issued both in periodicals and volumes, dealing with household topics, 
personal hygiene and adornment, and problems of garden and farm. 
The mass has become so tremendous, in fact, that many are rather 
oppressed and confused than enlightened by it. Having neither 
time, inclination, nor perhaps ability, to digest the load, they often 
become disgusted and end by following their own decrees. 

Realizing this unfortunate state of affairs the projectors of this 
publication entered upon the task of making available to the people 
this valuable, but bulky mass of information. Taking advantage of 
the labors of hundreds of specialists, the most practical information 
was collected, sifted and collated, it being the aim, whenever feasible, 
to cover three divisions of the subject in the treatment of every 
topic. For example, the farmer and gardener would naturally wish to 
know: first, what to plant; second, when to plant, and thirdly, how 
to plant — whether they were dealing with corn or strawberries. If 
i they wished to be posted as to the destruction of harmful insects, 
their mental inquiries would take the same direction and most 
naturally in the order given. Generally speaking, therefore, infor- 
mation under every topic treated has been incorporated under the 
three heads mentioned. 



16 INTRODUCTION 

Although, primarily, the book is a compend of simple recipes — • 
applicable to the household, the farm, the garden, the orchard and 
the dairy, as well as to man and beast — it contains most valuable 
general information, usually presented in the form of an introduction 
to the topic to be treated. As an instance of this latter feature of 
the work may be mentioned such articles as: The Human Body and 
Its Construction, Proper Food and Its Importance, Clothing and Its 
Relation to Health, Sleep and Its Value, How to Prevent Contagion, 
How to Keep the Baby Well, Value of System in Housekeeping, 
Common Sense in the Kitchen, Food Values and Nourishment, Per- 
sonal Hygiene, Physical Culture and Exercise, Gestation in Domestic 
Animals, Care of Ewes in Lambing Time, Successful Poultry Raising, 
Determining the Sex of Eggs, Farm Bookkeeping, etc., etc. 

In order to obtain the greatest possible good out of the book the 
editor wishes to impress one point upon the mind of the reader; that 
is, the necessity for the continuous and careful use of the Index. 
This has been prepared with great care and is the means which 
should always be first employed to gather all the information con- 
tained in the work upon any topic or topics. At least until it has 
been conscientiously consulted, do not say that the book does not 
contain what you seek. If you do not find the information under 
one heading think of some other way in which it might reasonably 
be classified and look for it under another word. For example, 
suppose you were looking for "Rice Croquettes," and failed to find 
them under that head, turn then to "Croquettes, Rice." This is an 
example of what is known as "cross-indexing," and is done to meet 
such cases as the above supposititious one. 

With this final warning, "don't neglect your index," the work is 
presented for inspection, use and enjoyment. 

THE EDITOR. 




fly 3 

S c.3 



< c £ = 

s - — 



CHAPTER I 
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD 

Health and Its Universal Interest — Foundation Principles Are Simple — 
Duty of All to Quard Their Physical Welfare — The Human Body and 
Its Construction — Proper Food and Its Importance — Clothing and Its 
Relation to Health — The Bath and Its Importance — Sleep and Its Value 
— Ventilation of Bedrooms. 

If-the question were generally asked, "What is the most important 
factor in the happiness of mankind?" spiritual matters not to be con- 
sidered in the query, it is safe to say that a tremendous majority of 
all the intelligent people of the world would reply, "Health." 

Indeed, almost all the other conditions of real importance in life 
depend more or less on health, and with health as a possession 
almost all misfortunes can be overcome or borne with patience. 
Wealth, for instance, is of very little consequence in comparison with 
health. Without the latter there can be little real enjoyment of the 
former. Without wealth, however, health can assure true happiness, 
and it is, indeed, one of the most serviceable factors in enabling one 
to add wealth to his possessions. 

With these facts clearly recognized as they are, it is not strange that 
intelligent men and women more and more give their attention to the 
welfare of their bodies. In the most highly civilized countries the 
advance of scientific surgery and discoveries in medicine are hailed 
with the greatest applause. In such countries the subjects of sanitation 
and hygiene are given the closest attention, not only by students and 
scientists, but by every thoughtful individual. It is being recognized 



18 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

that there is no great and impressive mystery about our physical 
natures by virtue of which we escape responsibility for guarding our 
own health in every reasonable way. The thing to do is to keep well 
if we possibly can, and when we fail, give the best attention possible 
to repairing the damage. 

The one who should neglect the well-known principles of hygiene, 
because of faith that a good doctor could cure any resulting sickness, 
would be no less than a fool. The one who gets wet on a stormy 
day, fails to change his clothes, neglects the cold which follows, 
contracts pneumonia and dies, is not "removed by an all-wise Provi- 
dence," as so many resolutions of sympathy declare, but by his own 
folly. It is unjust to blame a wise and beneficent Power for such 
results. The household that suffers from typhoid, when drinking 
well-water drained from its own cesspool, needs sympathy, indeed, not 
only for the sickness but for the stupidity that placed the well and the 
infection side by side. 

Thus it is that, in arranging the order of subjects in this book of 
practical information for everyone, it was readily decided to let this 
most important of all things lead the way. Household recipes and 
suggestions appeal specially to women; stock, farm and orchard come 
within the province of men; but health, hygiene and the kindred 
subjects command attention with equal force, from man. woman and 
child. 

Anyone who adopts the policy of "getting all the money he can, 
and keeping all he can get," is certain to make himself obnoxious to 
all about him, and in the end to become very miserable as an 
embittered, soured and friendless man, a failure in life, however 
wealthy he may become. But the one who chooses the policy of 
getting all the health he can and keeping all he gets, will have a very 
different tale to tell. Regular habits, careful living, sunny disposi- 
tion, a clear head, a bright eye, a sound mind and a sound body give 
one a cheerful outlook on the world, enable one to use all his energies! 
to the best advantage, guarantee that he will have real friends, assure 
happiness, and make of one a genuine success in life, whether with or 
without the prosperity that is very likely to accompany such qualities. 

And what does it involve, this intelligent effort to acquire and 
retain good health in these bodies of ours? 

We have here at our disposal a marvelous and complicated 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 19 

machine, perfect in design, and imperfect only through some 
inherited fault or weakness of our ancestors. Most of its processes 
are automatic, though some are deliberate, or voluntary. The auto- 
matic processes themselves may fail to operate, however, through 
some carelessness of our own in details that we must attend to of our 
own will. When the voluntary processes are continued with great 
regularity, they become so habitual that they may be considered almost 
automatic themselves, and in this state of affairs the whole machine 
is operating to the best advantage, and will receive no injury except 
from some outside cause. 

This wonderful machine must breathe — an involuntary or auto- 
matic action — but it must have pure and wholesome air, day and 
night, which is to be made sure only by our own care and voluntary 
action. It must be well nourished by proper food, obtained, selected 
and prepared by our own voluntary effort, but the food then is assim- 
ilated into our strength and support by the automatic and involuntary 
processes of digestion. So it is through a long list of details which 
might be named, that the machine of our body is kept in running 
order — in health, as we say — by a combination of voluntary and 
involuntary processes, the latter depending on the former in high 
degree for their success. All of these details are simple enough in 
themselves when studied a little. 

In normal and wholesome surroundings, such as, fortunately, most 
people in this country enjoy, it is an easy matter to avert disease by 
proper care, and to bring the system into such condition that in the 
event of sickness the ailment can be thrown off readily by proper 
attention. Carelessness of habits not only makes the individual more 
liable to the outbreak of disease, but weakens the power to combat 
the disease after it has once gained a hold. 

This work is not primarily a medical book in the general use of 
that term. That is to say, it does not go into the scientific and 
technical details of physiology, nor yet the description and treatment 
of every disease, simple or otherwise. Until all persons are educated 
in disease and medicine, the very best advice that can be given in the 
event of serious illness is — Call a competent, progressive, educated 
physician as promptly as possible, and yield absolute obedience to his 
instructions and treatment. But these instructions will include details 
of nursing and diet, general care of the health, and other things 



20 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

which are of great importance in assisting the work of the doctor. 
He will welcome the evidence of knowledge of such things which can 
be gained from this practical book. Furthermore, for an intelligent 
understanding of the human body, how to keep it in health, and how 
to treat its simple ailments, and the emergencies of all sorts that 
demand quick attention, this department of the present work is 
confidently offered to the reader. 

THE HUNAN BODY AND ITS CONSTRUCTION 

Let us now look briefly at the construction of the human body and 
the duties which its various parts are intended to perform, after 
which we will take note of the methods of preserving health in 
general, and the diseases and injuries which must be guarded against. 

First, some explanations of the terms used in these connections: 
We divide all nature into three classes of objects, those belonging 
to the Animal, Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms, and all things 
belong in one or another of these. They are also divided into 
organic and inorganic bodies. The first are those having organs by 
which they grow, such as animals and plants. Inorganic bodies are 
those which are without life of their own, such as air, water, stone 
and the like. All inorganic bodies are included in the mineral 
kingdom. Those organic bodies which have no power to feel are 
included in the vegetable kingdom, and those which have the power 
to feel form the animal kingdom. There are things in nature which 
are so close to this dividing line that even scientists disagree as to 
whether they belong to the vegetable or animal kingdom. 

The parts of an organized body, such as the mouth or the foot of an 
animal, the root or the leaf of a plant, are called the organs, and the 
work which an organ is intended to perform is called its function. 
The material out of which any organ is composed is called tissue, and 
in the human body, for instance, at least six different kinds of tissue 
are found, forming the various organs. We will speak of the various 
solids and fluids of the body by name, only in connection with their 
ailments and their care hereafter. The tissues themselves are 
composed of fifteen of the sixty-five chemical elements, or simple 
substances, known to exist in nature. 

The various organs of similar structure and common purpose 
found in the human body, when taken together, are called a system. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 21 

These are the Osseous System, the Muscular System, the Digestive 
System, the Circulatory System, the Respiratory System and the 
Nervous System. The Osseous System means the skeleton, which 
gives shape to the body and supports it, enables us to move and 
extend our limbs, and protects the delicate organs from injury. The 
Muscular System is the flesh of the body, forming a pad or covering 
around the bones, and thus also serving as a protection, in addition to 
producing at will the motions of our limbs and the controllable 
organs. The Digestive System is composed of those organs which 
receive, transmit and dispose of our food, separating the waste 
matter from the useful, and giving the latter to our nourishment and 
strength. The mouth, the stomach, the intestines, and various other 
organs are included in this service. 

The Circulatory System includes the heart, the arteries, the veins 
and the capillaries, those organs which transmit and purify the blood, 
building up all other organs by this essential fluid which is life. The 
Respiratory System is that which transmits the air and makes use of 
it in the body for purifying the blood, thus including the lungs, and 
the passages and valves which lead thither. The Nervous System is 
that part of the organism by which the different parts of the body are 
controlled and caused to work together, and through which mind 
and body are connected. The brain, the spinal cord, the nerves and 
the ganglia of the nerves are the organs of the Nervous System. 
They have been compared most appropriately to an intricate telegraph 
system, of which the brain is the head office or directing intelligence, 
the spinal cord is the main line, the nerves are the wires running to 
every station, and the ganglia are the stations themselves. 

In addition to these general systems which have been named we 
must take note also of the skin, which covers the whole exterior of 
the body; the mucous membrane, which covers the open cavities and 
lines the organs; the urinary organs, which separate and discharge 
the liquid waste of the body and thus are akin to the digestive system; 
and the organs of generation and reproduction by which the race is 
perpetuated. 

PROPER FOOD AND ITS IMPORTANCE 

To keep all of these various tissues and organs in health, as has 
been suggested heretofore, we must be properly nourished by the 



22 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

most suitable food. It is of prime importance, therefore, to know the 
true value of foods in order that we may select wisely. To a higher 
degree than is commonly realized, our physical welfare depends on 
this matter. We are not speaking here of food for the sick, but of 
food for the well, not of special delicacies, but of the every-day food 
of the average household the practical subject for the practical man, 
woman or child. Let us see what we may learn from the researches 
of the wisest students who have considered the subject. It is not 
necessary here to go into the chemical analysis which has proved the 
following facts, for facts they are. They may be accepted absolutely 
as safe guides, with the assurance that only benefit can result. 

The popular division of foods into animal and vegetable is neither 
scientific nor satisfactory. Not that it is a matter of indifference 
whether man lives on a purely animal or purely vegetable diet or on 
one derived from both kingdoms, but the differences depend not on 
the source whence the foods are obtained, but on the proportions in 
which the various food elements are combined, and on the digesti- 
bility and other special properties of the foods selected. The mate- 
rials supplied in the form of food, and digested and absorbed by the 
body, are partly employed for building up growing organs and making 
good the wear and tear — the loss of substances — which they are con- 
stantly undergoing, and partly as fuel for the production of heat and 
of energy. 

Speaking roughly, raw meat of ordinary quality consists of water 
seventy-five per cent, albumen and nitrogenous matters twenty per 
cent, and fat five per cent. Although meat becomes more tender by 
keeping, it is more wholesome while fresh, and freshness should not 
be sacrificed for a tenderness really due to the beginning of decompo- 
sition. The flesh of mature cattle, that is, four or five years old, is 
more nutritious than that of younger ones. It is a matter of experi- 
ence that beef and mutton are more easily digested than veal and 
pork. Veal broth, however, contains more nutritious matter than 
mutton broth or beef tea. Poultry and wild birds, if young, yield a 
tender and digestible meat. Fish vary much in their digestibility, 
salmon, for instance, being utterly unfit for weak stomachs. Crabs 
and lobsters are notoriously indigestible. 

Milk is the sole nourishment provided by nature for the young 
of man and beast, and contains all food stuffs in the best proportions 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 23 

for the infant's needs. But milk alone is not adapted to the adult. 
Supplemented by other food, however, it is invaluable and not appre- 
ciated as it ought to be. Cheese is highly nutritious, but not very 
digestible. Eggs resemble milk in composition, except that they 
contain less water. The nearer raw the more digestible they are, 
and the yolk is more so than the white, which, when hard boiled, is 
the most indigestible form of albumen known. The addition of eggs 
to baked puddings is of questionable utility, and next to a raw egg, 
well beaten, in milk or water or in soup or beef tea, not too hot, a 
light boiled custard is the best form for invalids. 

From the earliest ages the grains or cereals have formed a portion 
of man's diet. Wheat has always been the most esteemed, and some 
varieties of it may be grown in every climate except the very hottest 
and coldest. Barley, rye and oats may be grown much farther north, 
but are less digestible. Oatmeal cannot be made into bread, rye 
bread is rapidly being displaced by wheat, and barley has almost 
entirely fallen into disuse, except for the purposes of the brewer and 
distiller. In the tropics rice is the chief cereal. It consists almost 
entirely of starch, and is thus unfit for bread making. Our own corn, 
which we inherit from the Indians and have immensely improved, is 
of all the cereals the nearest approach to a perfect food. 

Among roots the potato holds the most prominent place. Potatoes 
are wholesome only when the starch granules, which compose them, 
are healthy, as shown by their swelling out during boiling, bursting 
their covering, and converting themselves into a floury mass, easily 
broken up. They contain from twenty to twenty-five per cent of 
nutriment, but this is almost entirely starch, and as a food in com- 
bination with meat, cheese or other vegetables, they are not equal to 
rice. Parsnips, beets and carrots are wholesome and nutritious, and 
should be used much more than they are. Turnips are not so valu- 
able. Cabbages and their kindred have but little food value, although 
the salts they contain are excellent in the preservation of health. As 
regards green vegetables in general the importance of having them 
fresh is not sufficiently realized. When they have been cut some 
days changes occur just as truly as in animal food, and the freshness 
should be carefully watched, except with those specially adapted for 
storing. 

Salads are useful in maintaining the health, although many of 



a 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

them are very indigestible, those of radishes, celery and cucumbers 
among the list. Fruits are prized chiefly for their taste. Grapes 
alone, among fresh fruits, contain any large proportion of food stuff. 
As an aid to digestion, however, they all are properly highly prized. 
Fruits should be fully ripe, but without any trace of decomposition. 

Stimulants and condiments of high seasoning have little food 
value of their own, but they have value as aids to digestion when 
used moderately, and in making simpler foods more palatable. 
Alcoholic liquors, whether mild or strong, hardly need to be con- 
sidered here. It is to be gravely doubted if such beverages are ever 
necessary or of value in the diet, and in this place we are not consid- 
ering them from any other point of view. 

It is equally difficult to speak positively and generally in reference 
to tea and coffee. It is safe to say, however, that many people drink 
these tempting beverages to excess, with harm resulting to them- 
selves from it. Tea and coffee alike act as exciters of the nerve 
centers, accelerating and strengthening the heart's action and respira- 
tion, causing wakefulness, and increasing the secretion of the kidneys 
and skin. Tea and coffee are far superior to alcohol in enabling 
man to resist the depressing influence of fatigue and exposure to 
cold, and are admirably adapted to the needs of soldiers on the 
march or men on outdoor night duty. Cocoa, chocolate and their 
preparations contain some active elements similar to those of tea and 
coffee, but the proportion of nutritive material is so much greater 
that they are to be looked on rather as food than drink. 

The considerable use of ice and iced drinks is to be avoided. 
Small quantities are of service in relieving thirst and vomiting, and 
in cooling the body when exposed to great heat. But since ice causes 
the mucous membrane of the stomach to become temporarily pale 
and bloodless, it checks or altogether suspends the flow of the gastric 
juice. Thus iced drinks at meals interfere seriously with digestion. 
Observe also that there is no truth in the popular notion that frozen 
water or ice is always pure. Water is not purified by freezing, and 
may be even more polluted than it was before. 

CLOTHING AND ITS RELATION TO HEALTH 

Having considered thus briefly the matter of food and its relation 
to health, the question of clothing and personal hygiene now rises for 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH *5 

attention. Besides serving for covering and adornment and guarding 
the body from injury, the use of clothing is to help in preserving the 
proper animal heat in spite of external changes. In health the 
normal temperature of the body, ninety-eight to ninety-nine degrees 
Fahrenheit, is invariable. In order that this temperature shall be 
maintained with the least strain on the vitality, the clothing should be 
such that heat is not readily conducted to or from the body. 

Cotton and linen keep off the direct rays of the sun and favor the 
loss of heat from the body, but being bad absorbers of moisture they 
are apt to interfere with evaporation from the skin, and cause 
dangerous chills. Linen and cotton are good conductors of heat, 
especially the former, and do not readily absorb moisture. Silk and 
wool are bad conductors. Wool has also a remarkable power of so 
completely absorbing moisture that it feels dry when cotton or linen 
would be wet and cold. Its value as a non-conductor, retaining 
internal heat and excluding external heat, is shown by the fact that we 
wrap ice in blankets to keep it from melting, and cover teapots with 
woolen "cosies" to keep them from getting cold. These qualities 
together render it the most perfect material for clothing under all 
conceivable circumstances. 

The young and the old, the rheumatic, all persons liable to colds 
or weak in lungs, or who have suffered from kidney diseases, those who 
are exposed to great heat or cold or are engaged in laborious exer- 
cises, ought to wear woolen next to the skin and, indeed, everyone 
would be better for doing so. Rheumatic persons and those 
liable to cold feet will find it a great luxury to sleep in blankets in 
winter instead of sheets, and young children who are apt to get 
uncovered at night should wear flannel night-gowns next the skin in 
the winter and over cotton ones in the summer. 

The color of clothing is a matter of little importance in the shade, 
but in the sun the best reflectors are coolest, such as white and light 
grays, while blue and black are the worst, absorbing the most heat. 
Dark colors also absorb odors more than light colors do. Indeed, for 
every-day use light-colored garments of whatever material, provided 
it can be washed, are to be recommended, though dark colors are 
too often preferred because they do not show the dirt. What 
woman would like to wear a cotton waist and skirt six months 
without washing? Yet it would not be half so dirty as the more 



s6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

absorbent dark woolen dress that she would wear as long without a 
scruple. 

Beds and bedding are likewise elements of importance in the 
general health, although not always sufficiently considered. Soft, and 
especially feather, beds are weakening. The harder a bed, consistent 
with comfort, the better. Good hair mattresses are the most whole- 
some. Coverings should be light, porous enough to carry off the 
evaporations from the body, and yet bad conductors of heat. Most 
blankets are too heavy, and thick cotton counterpanes are heavy 
without being warm. Flannel night-dresses are much preferred to 
cotton at all times, both for comfort and for health. Warmer in 
winter, they obviate the chill of the cold sheets; while in summer 
they prevent the more dangerous chill when in the early morning 
hours the external temperature falls, when the production of internal 
heat in the body is at its lowest ebb and the skin perhaps bathed in 
perspiration — a chill which otherwise can be avoided only by an 
unnecessary amount of bed clothes. 

THE BATH AND ITS IMPORTANCE 

The dirt of the skin and underclothing consists of the sweat and 
greasy matters exuded from the pores, together with the cast-off 
surface of the skin itself, which is continually scaling away. The 
importance of frequent bathing will be better appreciated when we 
remember what are the functions of the skin, and the amount of solid 
and fluid matter excreted thereby. The quantity varies greatly 
according to the temperature and moisture of the air, the work done, 
and the fluids drunk, but is probably never less than five pounds or 
half a gallon daily, and with hard labor and a high temperature this 
amount may be multiplied many times. From one to two per cent of 
this consists of fatty salts, without taking into account the skin scales. 

A good cistern, spring or well of wholesome water is a positive 
necessity on every farm. A bath-tub and its frequent use are quite 
as essential to the welfare of the farmer. 

In the cities, where soot and dense coal smoke soil linen and mulch 
the lungs and air passages, there is necessarily a greater regard for 
cleanliness on the part of the inhabitants than may be observed in 
the country, where the agencies which oppose cleanliness are of an 
entirely different composition and productive of different results. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 27 

The farmer during the summer season is lightly clad — a straw or 
hickory hat, a strong shirt, a pair of overalls, socks and heavy shoes 
constituting his bodily protection. The absence of underwear — 
sometimes socks — is excused upon the ground that the lighter the 
harness the less energy is diverted from the performance of work. 

Clothed as he is, the farmer, when working in the fields or 
engaged in any farm work, soon not only gets his clothing soiled, but 
the pores of his skin fill with particles of dust and this retards their 
normal and vitally necessary functions. No vocation in life makes fre- 
quent bathing unnecessary. Farmers and miners, perhaps more than 
any other class of laborers, who are continually in contact with the 
earth, need the elevating influence, physical and spiritual, of a daily bath. 

From a moral and hygienic standpoint the matter of cleanliness, 
which is next to godliness, is of great importance, and it is fine 
evidence of intellectual progress and spiritual growth when men use 
more water and soap at the end of the day's work. 

For purposes of cleanliness a bath without soap and friction is 
perfectly useless, and warm water is more effectual than cold. The 
shock of a cold plunge or sponge bath, however, has a powerful 
invigorating influence on the nervous system, and helps it guard 
against the risks of catching cold. The purpose of health and clean- 
liness alike will be best served by the daily bath with cold water and 
once a week with warm. 

Speaking of cold baths, we may take note of a popular error as to 
what this means. The temperature of the body is always a little 
under one hundred degrees F. If, then, in summer, a bath at sixty 
degrees F., or forty degrees below that of the body, is considered cold 
and gives the desired amount of shock, it will do the same in winter, 
and to insist on plunging into water still colder than that is, to say the 
least, unreasonable. The cold bath, then, is one at forty degrees 
below the temperature of the blood, and is the same in January as in 
July. To bathe in water from which the ice is broken, as some do, is 
a result of misunderstanding or folly, and maybe followed by danger- 
ous consequences. 

It is dangerous to bathe after a full meal, and also when fasting. 
An hour or two after breakfast is a good time, but if one wishes to 
bathe earlier, a bit of food should be taken first. Again it is dangerous 
to bathe when exhausted by fatigue, but the glow of moderate exer- 



28 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

cise is a decided advantage. A light refreshment and a short run or 
brisk walk are the best preparations for a swim, which should not be 
prolonged until fatigue and chill are felt, and should be followed by a 
rub-down, speedy dressing and a quick walk home. 

When the resisting and rallying power and the circulation gen- 
erally are weak, as shown by shivering, coldness of the extremities, 
and sense of exhaustion, river or sea bathing should be given up. 
So, too, persons whose lungs and hearts are weak, and above all those 
who have any actual diseases of those organs, should not attempt it. 
There is a general tendency among those who enjoy outdoor bathing 
to stay in the water too long. Boys in summer remain for hours at 
lake or river side, most of the time in the water. This is an exceed- 
ingly weakening practice. Half an hour is ample for all the benefit 
that can be derived from such a swim, and a longer time in the water 
is apt to be distinctly injurious. 

HOT WEATHER BATH SUGGESTION 

A good health preservative, especially in summer and in warm 
climates, is to sponge the body with water which contains a small 
amount of ammonia or other alkali. The ammonia combines with 
the oil or grease thrown out by the perspiration, forming a soap which 
is easily removed from the skin with warm water, leaving the pores 
open and thus promoting health and comfort. 

SLEEP AND ITS VALUE 

No general rule can be laid down as to the number of hours which 
should be passed in sleep, since the need of sleep varies with age, 
temperament, and the way in which the waking hours have been 
employed. The infant slumbers away the greater part of its time. 
Young children should sleep from six to seven in the evening, until 
morning, and for the first three or four years of their life should also 
rest in the middle of the day. Up to their fourteenth or fifteenth 
year the hour of retiring should not be later than nine o'clock, while 
adults require from seven to nine hours. Some can do with two or 
three hours less than this, but they are so few that they offer no 
examples for us to follow. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 29 

Insufficient sleep is one of the crying evils of the day. The want 
of proper rest of the nervous system produces a lamentable condi- 
tion, a deterioration in both body and mind. This sleepless habit is 
begun even in childhood, when the boy or girl goes to school at six 
or seven years of age. Sleep is persistently put off up to manhood 
and womanhood. 

Persons who are not engaged in any severe work, whether bodily 
or mental, require less sleep than those who are working hard. 
Muscular fatigue of itself induces sleep, and the man who labors thus 
awakes refreshed. But brain work too often causes wakefulness, 
although sleep is even more necessary for th ■ epair of brain than of 
muscular tissue. In such cases the attention should be forcibly with- 
drawn from study for some time before retiring to rest, and turned to 
some light reading, conversation or rest before going to bed. A short 
brisk walk out of doors just before bed time may aid the student in 
inducing sleep. Drugs should be avoided. 

After a heavy supper, either sleep or digestion must suffer, but the 
person who goes to bed hungry will not have sound and refreshing 
sleep. If one works after supper, through a long evening, he should 
eat a light lunch of some sort an hour or two before bed time. 

Ordinarily persons do best to retire at ten or eleven, and the 
habits of society which require later hours are to be regretted. 
Brain work, however, after midnight is most exhausting, and though 
sometimes brilliant, would probably be better still if diverted to 
earlier hours. Whatever be the explanation, it is an undoubted fact 
that day and night cannot be properly exchanged. About one or 
two o'clock in the morning the heart's action sinks, and nature points 
to the necessity for rest. Sleep in the day time does not compensate 
for the loss of that at proper time, and slumbers prolonged to a late 
hour do not refresh the mind or body as does sleep between the hours 
of eleven and six or seven, the normal period for rest. 

Old persons require, as a rule, less sleep than those of middle age, 
just as they require less food, because their nutritive processes are 
less active than when they were younger, and perhaps because their 
mental efforts also are less forced and attended by less exertion and 
more deliberation. Women, generally speaking, require more sleep 
than men, at least under like circumstances, apparently because in 
their case the same efforts involve greater fatigue. 



3 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

VENTILATION OF BEDROOMS 

Rooms which are to be slept in after having been occupied during 
a whole evening must be thoroughly ventilated before the occupant 
prepares for bed. Doors and windows must be thrown open for 
several minutes, the gas or lamp put out, and the air completely 
changed, no matter how cold it maybe outside. This is the only way 
to obtain refreshing sleep. On going to bed the usual ventilating 
arrangements should then be followed, but the great point is to 
change the air thoroughly first. 

REGULARITY OF HABITS 

The importance of regularity and punctuality in every circum- 
stance of daily life is not sufficiently realized. The more often and 
regularly any act is performed the more automatic it tends to become, 
and the less effort, whether mental or physical, attends its perform- 
ance. This is a matter of daily experience and observation, and is 
true not only of mental work and manual or mechanical exercises, 
but of the organic functions of the bodv. Quite apart from the harm 
done by too frequent eating or too prolonged periods between meals 
or want of rest, the brain finds itself ready for sleep, the stomach tor 
digestion and the bowels for action at the same hour every day, when 
these acts are performed with unbroken punctuality, and the strain 
upon the system to adjust itself to new conditions is therefore reduced 
to a minimum. 



CHAPTER II 
GENERAL HEALTH CONDITIONS 

Guard Your Water Supply — How Diseases Are Classified — How to Prevent 
Contagion — Care of the Sick Room — Disinfection, Its Importance and 
Its Methods — Period of Isolation or Quarantine — Duty of All House- 
holds Where Sickness Has Invaded, to Guard Others against Its Spread. 

Man cannot preserve his health entirely by his own caution as to 
his food and personal habits. His surroundings enter into the matter 
at all times. By this is meant the house in which he lives, its situa- 
tion and conditions, as well as the community itself. Fortunately, in 
this country we have not yet become so overcrowded as to forbid 
ordinary care in the matters of drainage, light, ventilation and other 
requisites. Americans should congratulate themselves that their 
ample country and general prosperity enable them to regulate their 
food, their habits and the conditions around them in high degree. 
At the same time the fact that these things are so generally within 
our control places upon us the obligation to do what we can for the 
community to maintain the general health. 

Let us note now, briefly, some points of primary importance in the 
conditions that assure general health. Air, warmth and light must 
be provided for the dwelling. In cities we cannot always choose, but 
in smaller communities and in the country we can in large degree 
control such things for ourselves. Some things require only to be 
suggested to be clearly understood. A house should stand where the 
character of the soil and the contour of the surface will provide the 
best drainage. Hollows should be avoided. When a house is built 
on a hillside the ground should not be dug out so that a cliff rises 
immediately behind. Trees may afford valuable shelter, not only 
from cold winds, but from fogs. But it is not generally wise to have 
them close around a dwelling, at least in large numbers, since they 
impede the free circulation of the surrounding air, and retain damp- 
ness beneath their shade. In the country a house may be sheltered 
from cold winds on the side from which they prevail, by trees. 

31 



32 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Exposure of each side of a house in succession to the rays of the sup 
helps to keep the outer walls dry, to warm it in winter and to aid 
ventilation in the summer. The north wall may be made with 
advantage a dead wall, and ventilating pipes and soil pipes may be 
carried up through it, but chimneys carried up through a north wall, 
being warmed with difficulty and apt to smoke, should not project 
but be built inside the house. Attics with slanting ceilings and 
dormer windows are cold in winter and hot in summer. 

Once occupied, the most important thing in the house is fresh air. 
The most common impurity in the atmosphere of rooms is carbonic 
acid gas, which is thrown off by the lungs of the occupants, and must 
be disposed of by ventilation in order that health shall be assured. 
The lamps or gas lights used in the room likewise give off carbonic 
acid, which is formed at the expense of the oxygen of the air, the 
vital element, which we require to breathe. Crowded rooms, or 
any rooms improperly ventilated, become tainted in this manner, and 
the headaches and faintness which we experience under such circum- 
stances are direct and natural results of carbonic acid poisoning. 
School rooms are particularly trying upon pupils and teachers, unless 
their ventilation is especially guarded. It is considered that the 
proper degree of purity in the air of a room can be maintained only 
by introducing at least 2,500 cubic feet of pure air per hour for each 
person, this being a virtual minimum. In mines it has been noticed 
that the men require not less than 6,000 cubic feet per hour, and that 
when the quantity falls to 4,000 cubic feet there is a serious falling off 
in the work done. Manifestly the better and tighter the building the 
more need there is for special means of ventilation. 

In the days when open fireplaces were almost the only means of 
heating houses they were of great value in aiding ventilation. Now- 
adays our stoves, radiators and furnaces do not help us in this matter, 
and we must take additional pains to see that ventilation is provided 
in some other way. Of course the simplest and most perfect method 
is to permit the free passage of the wind through open doors and 
windows. Every room should have its air thus completely renewed 
at least once a day. The mere renewal is done in a few minutes, 
but a longer time is required to dislodge the organic vapors and 
other impurities that lurk in the corners and behind furniture. In 
schools and work shops this should be done during the intervals for 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 33 

meals, and in churches between services. But in our climate it is not 
possible to have windows and doors open during all the time a room 
is occupied, except in very warm weather. It is seldom, however, 
that the window of a bedroom cannot be opened for a few inches all 
night without direct benefit to the occupant of the room. His bed, of 
course, must not be immediately in the draught. Curved pipes, ven- 
tilating shafts and slides under the windows are substitutes easy to 
use when windows cannot be actually opened. 

GUARD YOUR WATER SUPPLY 

Water supplies differ greatly in purity and composition, and are 
of the utmost importance in their effect upon the general health of a 
household. There is nothing which requires to be guarded more 
carefully. Absolutely pure water is almost unknown. Rain water 
collected in open countries is the purest, though even it takes up 
matters in its passage through the air, and in towns may be strongly 
acid. All waters which have been in contact with the soil dissolve 
out of it numerous inorganic and organic substances. Waters are 
described as hard or soft, hardness being the popular expression for 
the property of not easily forming a lather with soap. It is due to 
the presence of salts of lime and magnesia. Hard waters, if their 
hardness be not excessive, are agreeable and wholesome for drinking, 
but not well adapted for laundry or bathing purposes. They tend to 
harden vegetables cooked in them, and do not make as good tea as 
soft water. Rain water is, of course, the softest, but as a rule lakes 
yield waters also quite soft. When a good and wholesome water can- 
not be obtained from springs or rivers, as in malarial districts, and 
when there is reasonable ground for thinking the ordinary sources 
are contaminated by epidemics, it is well to fall back on the rainfall 
for drinking purposes, with special care that it is collected in a 
cleanly manner. 

Surface wells are always to be viewed with suspicion when they 
are in the vicinity of stables and cesspools, farm yards, cemeteries 
and anywhere in the towns. The filtration of the water through the 
soil removes the suspended matters, so that it may be clear enough to 
the eye, but it has no power to remove impurities actually dissolved. 
The eye cannot be trusted to judge the impurities of drinking 
water. Water which appears absolutely clear may be unwholesome 



34 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

in the extreme, and water with sediment floating in it may be in no 
way unwholesome. Nothing but an analysis of the water can settle 
this with absolute certainty. Deep wells and artesian wells which 
penetrate the surface strata are likely to be safe. Marsh waters carry 
malaria and should never be drunk without boiling. Indeed sus- 
picious water of all sorts may be made safe by boiling, although it is 
not sufficient always merely to bring it to a boil. Thirty minutes 
above the boiling point is a safe rule to follow. Typhoid, diphtheria, 
dysentery, cholera, diarrhea and other dangerous diseases are caused 
by impure water, either by suspended mineral matters acting as 
irritants, by suspended vegetable and animal matters, or by dissolved 
animal impurities. Sewer gases dissolved in water, in addition to 
these diseases, cause sore throats, boils and other ailments. 

It must not be forgotten that water closets, stable yards, manure 
piles, decaying kitchen slops and all sorts of filth are responsible for 
many of the most serious diseases, either by draining into the well 
and so contaminating the water supply, or by direct breeding of 
disease germs carried as dust and inhaled. Health is one of the 
rewards for household cleanliness of the most careful kind. 

HOW DISEASES ARE CLASSIFIED 

In one sense most diseases are preventable, if all the circum- 
stances which tend to spread them could be absolutely controlled by 
a single wise authority, and if all the physiological laws would be 
obeyed by all persons at all times. But as this happy condition is not 
in effect, we have to reckon with various kinds of diseases, as well as 
the accidents and injuries which come to us in health. The various 
diseases are classified into general groups. 

Endemic diseases are those which are constantly present in a 
community because of certain unfavorable conditions, such as malaria 
in swampy regions, rheumatism from bad climatic conditions, and 
diseases resulting from unhealthy employments. Miasmic diseases 
are those due to conditions of the soil, and comprise the various 
forms of intermittent fevers, agues and the like. Infectious diseases, 
on the other hand, belong to the people, and not to the place. They 
are communicated from one person to another through the air, or by 
means of infected articles of clothing, etc., and they attack the strong 
and healthy, no less than the weak. Among such are smallpox, 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 35 

scarlet fever, measles, etc. Various branches of infectious diseases 
are recognized in addition, as combining some of the character- 
istics of the classes already named. For instance, erysipelas and 
other blood poisons are generated within the body of the individual 
who, so to speak, infects himself and may then infect others. 
Typhoid, cholera and yellow fever are miasmic diseases, but they are 
also capable of being carried by human intercourse, infected clothes, 
polluted water, etc., within certain limits of space and time. Hydro- 
phobia, glanders and such diseases are communicated only by actual 
contact of body. Rickets and scurvy are preventable, though not 
communicable diseases, being direct results of mal-nutrition or imper- 
fect nourishment, and consequently are diseases of diet. 

Bacteria are those minute organisms which under various names 
are the active causes not only of diseases but of all putrefaction, fer- 
mentation and like changes in dead organic matter. Like all living 
things they may be killed, and on this is based the whole theory of 
disinfection. Some are more hardy than others, under conditions 
which are frequently supposed to be unfavorable to them. Merely to 
destroy an unpleasant odor or to admit fresh air into a room does 
not mean to disinfect, and it is necessary to understand this clearly 
in the effort to purify rooms in the event of infection. 

Contagion is communicated sometimes with the utmost ease, if 
the new victim be in a receptive condition, and in the presence of any 
disease, even the most simple, it is well to take every precaution. 
The mucous surfaces are peculiarly ready to absorb infection of 
many kinds. Measles is easily absorbed from pocket handkerchiefs, 
as are also scarlet fever, whooping-cough and other diseases. By 
inhalation through the nostrils or mouth, scarlet fever, measles, 
whooping-cough, mumps, diphtheria, dysentery, cholera and even 
pneumonia and meningitis may be communicated. By eating or 
drinking something which contains the germs of cholera, typhoid, 
malaria, tuberculosis or consumption, diphtheria and scarlet fever, 
these diseases are communicated. 

HOW TO PREVENT CONTAGION 

It is an undoubted fact that not enough attention is paid to isola- 
tion in times of sickness. There is too much visiting in the sick 
room, too many people share the care of the patient, the nurse 



36 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

mingles too freely with other members of the family, and there is not 
enough care to keep the soiled bedding, garments and refuse of the 
sick room absolutely separated from that of the rest of the house. 
Scarlet fever is a noteworthy instance of a disease which constantly 
spreads by carelessness. Just as long as the scaling or shedding of 
the outer skin continues contagion may be carried, for it is these 
scales which bear it. It is nothing less than criminal, therefore, to 
permit the patient who is recovering to mix with other persons, 
except those who have been caring for him already. In the early 
stages of the disease the infection is chiefly in the breath, and in the 
secretion of the nostrils. During the disease pocket handkerchiefs 
should never be used, soft linen or cotton rags being substituted and 
immediately burned. 

Most of the same things are true as to measles, whooping-cough, 
mumps and German measles, which are constantly spread by sheer 
carelessness because people do not realize the obligation resting 
upon them to guard others from contact with disease. These 
ailments are highly infectious before they are certainly recognized, 
and for that reason it is not possible always to isolate cases in time, 
but at least after the fact is clearly understood there should be no 
further carelessness. 

Another prevalent disease in which carelessness is responsible for 
much of its spreading is tuberculosis, phthisis, or consumption.as it 
is more familiarly known. It is not possible yet to isolate every 
person suffering with this insidious disease, nor is that suggested. 
But at least it may be urged that every such sufferer shall thought- 
fully guard in every way in his power against communicating it to his 
own neighbors and family. The bacilli, or bacteria, of consumption 
swarm in the spittle of the patient, and are diffused by the wind as 
dust as soon as they are dried. To guard against infection from this 
cause, spittoons should be used, which can be absolutely disinfected, 
or cloths which can be promptly burned. 

Smallpox is perhaps the most infectious of diseases. Yet in 
vaccination we have a means of protection which we have not in any 
other. As long as a large unvaccinated population exists, however, 
we shall have epidemics from time to time. Before the introduction 
of vaccination nearly everyone had smallpox, just as now almost all 
persons have measles at some time or other. The heaviest mortality 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 37 

occurred within the first five or ten years of life, the deaths in later 
periods being very few, since the population had mostly been 
rendered immune by having had it already. 

Measles is a well-defined disease, intensely infectious, occurring 
but once in a lifetime. It is very rarely fatal, nearly ail the deaths 
credited to it being really due to bronchitis and inflammation of the 
lungs, the results of neglect and exposure to cold. No age is exempt. 
The only reason why it is looked on as a disease of childhood is that 
being in the highest degree infectious from the beginning, when its 
nature is not suspected, few children in the schools can hope to 
escape it, but if by chance they do, they are just as susceptible to it 
in after-life. 

Whooping-cough is a highly infectious disease, occurring but once 
in a lifetime, but at any age, though most frequently in childhood. 
The frequent belief that children suffering from whooping-cough 
should be as much as possible in the open air is an entirely mistaken 
one, as it leads not only to continuing the disease longer, but to 
danger of bronchitis and pneumonia. As in diphtheria and scarlet 
fever the mucus is the chief vehicle of contagion, and pocket hand- 
kerchiefs should be forbidden, pieces of soft rag being substituted and. 
burned as soon as used. 

Typhoid or enteric fever is slow and uncertain in its onset, a full 
month in duration, and the return of health is usually tedious. It is 
like diphtheria, directly a result of unsanitary conditions. Danger of 
direct infection from the patient is slight, but the poison remains in 
the evacuations from the bowels and is propagated by them. By this 
means a reservoir or river has been known to infect a whole town. 
Broken or defective drains, the entrance of sewer gas into houses, 
wells polluted by cesspool drainage, and milk diluted with infected 
water, are among the principal means of spreading the disease. It is 
an absolute rule that all bedding which becomes soiled should be 
destroyed, and the refuse of the sick room should be instantly disin- 
fected and removed from the dwelling. 

CARE OF THE SICK ROOM 

Although it is quite possible that few may be able to follow every 
instruction or precaution advised to guard against the spread of 
diseases, we may at least outline the conditions to be aimed at and 



38 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

secured as nearly as possible. In spite of the additional labor that it 
makes, the ideal place for a sick room in a private house is as far 
from the ground as possible. To be of any service at all isolation 
must be real and complete. A room should be selected in the 
topmost story, the door kept closed, a fire, large or small, according 
to the weather, kept burning, and the windows open as much as 
possible. Even in the winter this can be done without danger under 
most circumstances by lowering the upper sash and breaking the 
draught by a blind or a screen. The staircase and hall windows 
should be kept open day and night. The other inmates of the house 
should keep their own rooms thoroughly ventilated. The persons 
nursing the patient should on no account mix with other members of 
the family, or if that cannot be helped they should take off their 
dresses in the sick room, and after washing their hands and faces, put 
on other dresses kept hanging outside the room, or in an adjoining 
apartment. 

All dishes used in the room should be washed separately, and not 
with others in the kitchen. The room itself, except in case of measles 
and whooping-cough, the poison of which does not retain its vitality 
for any length of time, should be as scantily furnished as possible, 
containing nothing which can retain infection. All woolen carpets, 
curtains and bed hangings should be removed, and only wooden or 
cane-bottomed chairs kept. There should be no sofa, and iron 
bedsteads are better than wood. A straw mattress of little value, 
which may be destroyed afterward, is better than a hair one, which 
can be disinfected, but feather beds and such coverings should be 
absolutely forbidden. 

In scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox and typhoid, all soiled 
clothing and bedding should be immediately put into an earthenware 
vessel, containing a solution of corrosive sublimate (one drachm to 
a gallon of water) and left to soak for some hours before being 
washed. On being taken from this disinfecting solution they must, 
even at risk of spoiling flannels, be thrown into boiling water and 
boiled for some minutes before soaping and washing. No infected 
clothes should, under any circumstances, be sent out of the house, 
unless all of these precautions are absolutely guarded. 

In cases of typhoid and scarlet fever the vessel which receives the 
passages from the bowels should have in it a solution of corrosive 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 39 

sublimate or of carbolic acid. The contents then should be stirred 
with a poker before being poured into the water closet, and the same 
disinfectant should be sprinkled liberally into the closet. 

After the peeling in scarlet fever or the shedding of scabs in 
smallpox has set in, the patient should take, at intervals of three or 
four days, hot baths with soft soap, the hair, previously cut short, 
being well scrubbed with the same. In scarlet fever and diphtheria 
the mouth and throat should be frequently sprayed, washed out or 
gargled with a pretty strong solution of permanganate of potash or a 
weak one of chlorinated soda. 

DISINFECTION, ITS IMPORTANCE AND ITS METHODS 

There are few subjects on which greater ignorance exists, not only 
among the public but among medical men as well, than on that of 
disinfectants. The word is used vaguely to mean deodorants, which 
destroy bad odors; antiseptics, which prevent the spread of injury by 
putrefaction in a wound; and germicides, which actually destroy the 
bacteria or microbes which produce contagion in a disease. In some 
cases one of these may serve the function of another, but that is 
merely incidental. Deodorants may be such simple things as per- 
fumery, tobacco smoke or camphor, and they serve very useful 
purposes in masking bad smells, but they are entirely useless in 
preventing disease. 

Permanganate of potash, or "Condy's fluid," as the druggists call 
it, is a powerful antiseptic, instantly destroying the matter that is 
beginning to putrefy by what is really a burning process. It 
sweetens the foul discharges from wounds and bad throats, but is 
nearly powerless to destroy the living germs of disease. 

The disinfectants of most practical value, which are at the same 
time germicides, are carbolic acid, chloride of zinc, sulphurous acid, 
chlorine and corrosive sublimate. Carbolic acid, when strong 
enough, is fairly satisfactory. Five per cent solutions (one part in 
twenty) stop the activity of bacteria, but do not actually destroy their 
vitality. Solutions twice as strong do, but water will not dissolve so 
much, and the odor that remains is an objection to their use for disin- 
fecting linen. Chloride of zinc is far more powerful. If too strong a 
mixture is used it may injure cloth, so that this wants to be guarded 
against. 



4 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Sulphurous acid (the fumes of burning sulphur) is a most con- 
venient disinfectant. Shut the windows down tight, leave all the, 
clothing in its place and open trunks and drawers. Put a thick layer 
of ashes in an old iron pot, over which place a shovel of live coals; 
throw a teacup of pulverized sulphur on the coals and run out, closing 
the doors in your exit. Stay out several hours. On returning open 
all doors and windows, and the odor will soon be gone, also the bugs, 
insects and the germs of any disease that may be lodged in the 
clothing, etc. 

The following instructions, published in the Hospital Gazette. 
were prepared by a board of eminent physicians and surgeons for 
public information, and on the general proposition of disinfection 
they can hardly be surpassed: Three different preparations are 
recommended for use to make the purifying of a house, where 
infection has been, complete. The first is ordinary roll sulphur or 
brimstone, for fumigation; the second is a copperas solution, made by 
dissolving sulphate of iron (copperas) in water in the proportion of 
one and one-half pints to one gallon, for soil, sewers, etc.; the third is 
a zinc solution, made by dissolving sulphate of zinc and common salt 
together in water in the proportion of four ounces of the sulphate 
and two ounces of the salt to one gallon, for clothing, bed linen, etc. 
Carbolic acid is not included in the list, for the reason that it is very 
difficult to determine the quality of what is found in the stores, and 
the purchaser can never be certain of securing it of proper strength. 
It is expensive when of good quality, and it must be used in compar- 
atively large quantities to be of any use. Besides it is liable, by its 
strong odor, to give a false sense of security. Nothing is commoner 
than to see saucers of carbolic acid and other disinfectants in a sick 
room. Considering the vitality of bacteria, and that they require 
carbolic solutions of more than five per cent or several hours of 
intense heat or similar heroic measures to kill them, it must be 
evident that such feeble vapors as can be tolerated in the sick room 
are utterly useless. Here are the instructions in full: 

In the Sick Room, the most valuable agents are fresh air and 
cleanliness. The clothing, towels, bed linens, etc., should, on removal 
from the patient and before they are taken from the room, be placed 
in a pail or tub of the zinc solution, boiling hot if possible. All dis- 
charges should either be received in vessels containing the copperas 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 41 

solution, or, when this is impracticable, should be immediately 
covered with the solution. All vessels used about the patient should 
be cleansed or rinsed with the same. Unnecessary furniture — 
especially that which is stuffed — carpets and hangings should, when 
possible, be removed from the room at the outset; otherwise they 
should remain for subsequent fumigation, as next explained. 

Fumigation. — Fumigation with sulphur is the method used for dis- 
infecting the house. For this reason the rooms to be disinfected 
must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding and other 
articles which cannot be treated with the zinc solution, should be 
opened and exposed during fumigation, as next directed. Close the 
rooms tightly as possible, place the sulphur in iron pans supported 
upon bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a little water, set it on fire 
by hot coals or with the aid of a spoonful of alcohol, and allow the 
room to remain closed twenty-four hours. For a room about ten feet 
square at least two pounds of sulphur should be used; for larger 
rooms proportionally increased quantities. 

Premises. — Cellars, stables, yards, gutters, privies, cesspools, water 
closets, drains, sewers, etc., should be frequently and liberally treated 
with the copperas solution. The copperas solution is easily prepared 
by hanging a basket containing about sixty pounds of copperas, in a 
barrel of water. (This would be one and one-half pounds to the 
gallon, or about that. It should all be dissolved.) 

Body and Bed Clothing, Etc. — It is best to burn all articles which 
have been in contact with persons sick with contagious or infectious 
diseases. Articles too valuable to be destroyed should be treated as 
follows: Cotton, linen, flannels, blankets, etc., should be treated 
with the boiling hot zinc solution, introduced piece by piece; secure 
thorough wetting, and boil for at least half an hour. Heavy 
woolen clothing, silks, furs, stuffed bed covers, beds, and other articles 
which cannot be treated with the zinc solution, should be hung in the 
room during the fumigation, their surfaces thoroughly exposed, and 
the pockets turned inside out. Afterward they should be hung in the 
open air, beaten and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuffed mattresses, 
upholstered furniture, etc., should be cut open, the contents spread 
out and thoroughly fumigated. Carpets are best fumigated on the 
floor, but should afterward be removed to the open air and thoroughly 
beaten. 



4* PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Corpses. — Corpses of those dying from infectious diseases should 
be thoroughly washed with a zinc solution of double strength; 
should then be wrapped in a sheet wet with zinc solution and buried 
at once. Metallic, metal-lined, or air-tight coffins should be used 
when possible, certainly when the body is to be transported for 
any considerable distance. Of course a public funeral is out of the 
question. 

In addition to these disinfectants of longstanding, which have been 
recognized in medicine for many years, another of great value is 
now coming into high favor. This is formalin, which, in its various 
forms, is convenient, economical and highly effective. Under the 
name of formaldehyde, one preparation of this disinfectant is widely 
but improperly used as a preservative for milk, meat and some other 
perishable foods. In almost every instance this is illegal, and 
properly so, for the substance is a poison and even when diluted can- 
not fail to be injurious. From formalin various disinfecting sub- 
stances are made, and may be had at the drug stores, some as liquids 
and others in tablets to evaporate over a lamp for the general disin- 
fection of rooms or houses. The latter may be recommended in 
the highest degree as a safe, economical and absolutely sanitary 
process. 

Corrosive sublimate is, perhaps, the most powerful germicide 
known, a solution of one part in a thousand, or a little more than a 
drachm to a gallon of water, being amply sufficient for all practical 
purposes. It does not injure or stain wood, varnish, paint, plaster or 
ordinary fabrics, and if the ceiling be whitewashed with a genuine 
lime wash, and the walls, floors, doors and furniture of the room be 
washed down with the mixture, no microbes can possibly escape. It 
attacks metals, but iron bedsteads are protected by the enameling. 

Poisonous as corrosive sublimate is, the danger from it is easily 
guarded against. The smallest dose of it known to have proved 
fatal, even to a child, would require no less than a quarter of a pint of 
the solution of one in a thousand parts. A mouthful of this would not 
cause more than temporary discomfort, while the taste would prevent 
a second being swallowed. Still, as a further safeguard it might be 
well to add a little laundry bluing to give color to the mixture, and a 
little wood alcohol to give it a smell. Then with a proper poison 
label on it surely no one would be endangered by it. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 43 

PERIOD OF ISOLATION OR QUARANTINE 

A person who has had any infectious disease and has been 
thoroughly disinfected, with his clothes, may be allowed to mix freely 
with his fellows, in school, for instance, after the following periods. 
Scarlet fever: Not less than eight weeks from the appearance of the 
rash, provided peeling has completely ceased, and there be no sore 
throat. Six weeks is not enough, as there are cases of direct infec- 
tion after seven weeks when all symptoms have entirely disappeared. 
Measles and German measles: In three weeks, provided all peeling 
and coughing have ceased. Smallpox and chickenpox: A fortnight 
after the last scab has fallen off; the hair, in case of smallpox, having 
been cut short and scrubbed with carbolic soap or soft soap. Mumps: 
Four weeks from the attack if all swelling has disappeared. Whoop- 
ing-cough: Six weeks from recognition of the whoop if the cough 
has entirely lost its spasmodic character, or four weeks if all cough 
whatever has ceased. Diphtheria: In a month if convalescence be 
complete, there being no trace of sore throat or discharge from the 
nose, eyes, etc. Ringworm: When the whole scalp, carefully 
examined in a good light, shows no stumpy broken hairs or scaly 
patches. 

It has been very difficult to impress upon communities and indi- 
viduals the extreme importance of strict obedience to the foregoing 
rules. There is an unfortunate tendency in too many instances for 
households to fail in guarding their neighbors from contact with their 
own members who are convalescing from diseases. Even such 
common and simple diseases as whooping-cough, chickenpox, mumps 
and others that are considered especially to belong to children, 
frequently prove fatal to those who are susceptible to them, and it is 
truly wicked to permit by carelessness such an infection to reach a 
school or elsewhere where weaker children may suffer as a result. 



CHAPTER III 
COMMON SENSE IN THE SICK ROOM 

Ventilation, Light, Temperature and Furnishings — Care of the Patient — 
His Temperature and Pulse — Bed Sores — The Characteristics of Fever 
— Simple Household Remedies — What to Put in a Remedy Cupboard — 
How to Keep the Baby Well. 

To every living person air must be furnished every moment if life 
is to be preserved. The vital element of the air is oxygen gas, the 
life-giving medium, and this is diluted with nitrogen, because the 
oxygen itself, breathed alone, would be too stimulating for our 
lungs. In the delicate cells of the lungs the air we have inhaled 
gives up its oxygen to the blood, thus purifying it, and receives in 
turn carbonic acid gas and water, foul with waste matter, which the 
blood has absorbed during its passage through the body and which 
we now exhale. The blood is red when it leaves the heart, pure. It 
returns to the heart purple from the impurities it has picked up, and 
by the oxygen is once more changed to red. 

Manifestly if this process is so important to a person in health, it 
must be doubly so to one who is sick. The impurities of a sick room 
consist largely of organic matter, including in many instances enor- 
mous numbers of the disease germs themselves. If we uncover a 
scarlet fever patient in the direct rays of the sun a cloud of fine dust 
may be seen to rise from the body, the dust which carries the con- 
tagion itself. In an unventilated place this is but slowly scattered or 
destroyed, and for many days it retains its poisonous qualities. "The 
effect of rebreathing the air cannot be overestimated," says Martin 
W. Curran of Bellevue Hospital, New York City. "We take back into 
our bodies that which has been just rejected, and the blood thereupon? 
leaves the lungs bearing, not the invigorating oxygen, but gas and 
waste matter, which, at the best, is disagreeable to the smell, injurious 
to the health, and may contain the germs of disease." 

Fortunately rooms may be ventilated by means of windows in 
several different ways with little risk of draught. For instance, the 
lower sash of the window may be raised three or four inches, and a 

44 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 45 

plain bar of wood an inch in thickness, extending the whole breadth 
of the window, may be put below the window sash, entirely filling 
the space. By this means the air current enters above, between the 
two sashes in an indirect line, and it is gradually diffused through the 
room without a draught. Here is a simpler way of doing the same 
thing. Take a heavy piece of paper or cloth, about twelve inches 
wide, and long enough to reach across the window. Tack it 
tightly at both ends and the lower edge to the frame, and raise the 
lower sash of the window a few inches. The air entering will be 
diverted by the cloth. If the air is very cold it must not be admitted 
at the bottom of the room, but from the top of the window, and 
should be directed toward the ceiling so as to fall and mix gradually 
with the warmer air of the room. 

The influence of the sun's rays upon the nervous system is very 
marked. That room is the healthiest to which the sun has freest 
access. The sick room should be kept looking bright and cheerful, 
unless the disease be one that requires the eyes to be specially guarded 
from the light. The eyes are weaker, however, in all sickness, and 
the bed should be turned so that the patient does not look directly 
toward the bright light of the open window. 

The proper temperature for a sick room is sixty-eight degrees 
above zero. In the hot days of summer when this temperature is 
greatly exceeded, or the air is too dry, hang some thin muslin, soaked 
in ice water, across the opening in the windows, which will moisten 
the air, cool the room, and keep out many particles of floating dust. 
If the floor of the sick room is carpeted and the illness is serious, 
cover the carpet with sheets and sprinkle on them a weak solution of 
carbolic acid at intervals. The sheets can be changed as often as 
necessary. The cleanest wall is one that is painted, which can be 
washed and disinfected in any way desired. Nurses consider papered 
walls the worst ones, and plastered the next, but the latter can be 
made safe by frequent lime washings and occasional scraping. 

Have as little furniture as possible in the sick room, and all of this 
of wood, metal or marble, kept clean by being wiped with a cloth 
wrung out of hot water. A small, light table should be placed for 
the patient's use, from which he may reach his own glass of water. 
The bed should not be placed with one of the sides against the wall, 
as a nurse should be able to attend to a patient from either side. 



46 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

CARE OF THE PATIENT 

In all cases where the patient is too ill or forbidden to sit up in 
bed, a feeding cup with a curved spout should be used. The nurse's 
hand should be passed beneath the pillow, and the head and pillow 
gently raised together. Where there is extreme prostration a glass 
tube, bent at a right angle, one end of which is placed in the cup con- 
taining the food and the other in the patient's mouth, will enable him 
to take liquids with scarcely any effort. 

If the patient is in a state of delirium, or unconscious, endeavor to 
arouse him somewhat before giving him his food. Sometimes 
merely putting the spoon in his mouth is enough, but at other times 
you will require to get it well back on the tongue. In such cases, 
watch carefully to see that the liquid is swallowed before attempting 
to give a second spoonful. 

When it comes to the convalescent patient the food is no less 
important than during the time of illness. Serve it on a tray, covered 
with a fresh napkin, have the dishes and spoons clean and shining, 
and be careful not to slop things into the saucers. Take the tray 
from the room as soon as the meal is ended, for uneaten food some- 
times becomes very obnoxious to the sick person if it remains in 
sight. To provide food for the sick which is both suitable and 
attractive sometimes requires great care, judgment and patience, but 
the effort is worth all the trouble it costs. The aim should be to give 
what will be at the same time easy to digest and of nutritive value 
after it is digested. In another department of this work will be 
found many recipes adapted for invalids. 

Medicine should be given at regular hours, and careful attention 
should be paid to the directions as to the time when the doses are to 
be given, as, for instance, before or after meals. The exact quantity 
ordered should be given, as even a slight error may defeat the results 
intended. Never give any medicine without looking at the label, 
being absolutely certain that you have the right one. Never allow a 
bottle to stand uncorked, for many mixtures lose their strength when 
exposed to the air. 

TEMPERATURE AND PULSE 

We follow Mr. Curran again in his clear statement of the impor- 
tance of temperature in disease. Every household should have a 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 4? 

clinical thermometer to use in taking the temperature of the patient 
in the event of sickness. The average normal temperature in adults 
is from 98.4 to 98.6 degrees. There is a daily variation of sometimes 
1.5 degrees, the highest point being reached in the evening. Exer- 
cise, diet, climate and sleep cause deviation from the standard. 
Almost every disease, however, carries with it an abnormal variation 
in temperature. If the rising temperature does not always show 
what the disease is, it does show what it probably is not. For 
instance, a rapid rise of three or four degrees above the healthy 
standard does not mean typhoid fever, but may mean measles or 
scarlet fever, and in whooping-cough and smallpox, the highest tem- 
perature precedes those diseases from two to four days. In diphtheria 
there is this rise before anyone thinks of looking at the throat. 
Increase of temperature calls for cooling remedies, external and 
internal, and degrees of temperature below the standard require 
warming and sustaining treatment. 

An increase of temperature beginning each day a little earlier is a 
bad sign; one beginning later promises well. A decrease of fever 
beginning each day earlier is a good sign, but if later each day, is a 
bad one. A very high temperature, say 105 degrees, is dangerous in 
itself, but more so if it has come on gradually as the last of a series, 
the temperature having grown daily higher by half a degree or more. 
A fall of temperature below normal is far more dangerous than a 
much greater corresponding rise. One degree below normal is more 
an indication of a bad condition than two and one-half above normal. 
In convalescence if there is no rise of temperature after eating there 
is no nourishment secured from the food; if there is a sudden or high 
rise of more than one degree the food was too stimulating or bulky. 
To be beneficial in convalescence food must increase the temperature 
a quarter to half a degree and this must almost subside when diges- 
tion is over, though leaving a gradual improvement in the average 
daily temperature. 

Temperature from 106 degrees upward and from 95 degrees 
downward is extremely dangerous and virtually a sign of fatal 
ending. As the temperature increases or decreases from normal 
toward these extremes, it consequently becomes more threatening. 
Temperature should be taken by placing the bulb of the clinical ther- 
mometer in the rectum or under the tongue. 



48 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

There is a close connection between the temperature and the 
pulse, both of which guide the judgment in matters of health. The 
pulse is most rapid at birth, and becomes constantly slower until old 
age,"ranging from a maximum at the beginning of 130 to 150 pulsa- 
tions a minute to a minimum at the end of life of 50 to 65 pulsations. 
The average pulse through the period of adult life is from 70 to 75 
beats per minute. It is considered that every rise of temperature of 
one degree above normal corresponds with an increase of ten beats 
of the pulse per minute. 

We have already spoken of the importance of the bath in health. 
Baths have their equal importance in sickness, and their direct effect 
upon many diseases. All the vital organs are affected through the 
skin, and by keeping it in a healthy condition the circulation of the 
blood, the action of the kidneys and bowels and all the digestive 
processes are promoted, many diseases warded off, and the assimila- 
tion of food aided. In many fevers, for instance, a sponge bath with 
water a few degrees cooler than the normal temperature of the body 
will give great comfort and relieve and reduce the temperature 
materially. A warm bath with water about at the temperature of the 
body, or a degree or two less, produces no shock to the system but 
makes the pulse beat a little faster and causes a little more activity 
of circulation. 

Put bran enough in the water to make it milky, and the bath will 
assist in softening the skin, when it is dried and flaky. Put in a 
pound of rock salt to every four gallons of water and you will find the 
bath useful in invigorating feeble constitutions. 

Thirst is Nature's Signal that the system needs an increased supply 
of water just as truly as appetite shows need for food. It is relieved 
not only by water but by barley water, toast water and similar drinks, 
by small pieces of ice held in the mouth, and by drinks made from the 
juices of fruit. Care must be used, however, in the employment of 
these apparently harmless things, or injury may follow from taking 
them to excess. 

Bed Sores are the inflamed spots which occur on the body, often 
as a result of carelessness during a long illness. They are not likely 
to occur if the bedding is kept smooth and free from wrinkles and 
the patient kept dry, his position varied as frequently as possible, and 
the proper bathing not neglected. If such sores threaten there are 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 49 

several remedies which will help to prevent them. Alcohol, brandy 
or glycerine rubbed over the parts exposed to pressure, after washing 
in the morning and evening, will serve to harden the place where 
applied. A solution of nitrate of silver, painted on threatened but 
unbroken skin as soon as it becomes red, will prevent sores. In the 
early stage of bed sores apply a mixture of equal parts of rectified 
spirits and white of egg. Put it on with a feather and renew as it 
dries till an albuminous coating is formed. For bed sores occurring 
in typhoid and other fevers an excellent prescription is composed of 
two parts of castor oil and one of balsam of Peru, which are spread 
on pieces of lint, laid on the sore and covered with a linseed poultice 
to be changed three or four times a day. 

The Characteristics of Fever are a rising of the temperature, and, 
as a rule, increased rapidity of the circulation as shown by the pulse, 
and alterations in the secretions of the body, which are usually dimin- 
ished. Fever diet consists in giving the patient plenty of milk, 
arrowroot or broth, composing a light, easily-digested fluid diet, every 
three hours, day and night. If milk alone is used the patient can take 
from three to five pints in twenty-four hours-. The general treatment 
recommended for fevers consists in sponging off the body of the 
patient under the bed clothes with cool water three or four times a 
day, keeping him lightly covered, the room well ventilated, and its 
temperature from sixty-eight to seventy degrees. He should be 
given plenty of cooling drinks in small quantities from fear of over- 
loading his stomach, but frequently repeated even if he has to be 
coaxed to take them. The secretions of the kidneys and bowels must 
be kept up by such medicines as are prescribed by the physician in 
charge. 

SIMPLE HOUSEHOLD REMEDIES, HERBS AND OTHERWISE 

Those who live in the city, where a doctor can be summoned in a 
few minutes, if needed, cannot realize how important it is that the 
farmer's wife should keep a supply of simple remedies on hand and 
know how to use them. It is a good plan to have an herb bed in one 
corner of the garden, where catnip, thoroughwort, camomile, hoar- 
hound, pennyroyal, etc., can be grown. These are nature's remedies 
and are often just as effective and always safer than strong drugs. 
Almost all kinds of herbs should be gathered while in blossom and 



jo PRACTICAL RECIPES 

tied up in bunches until dry. Then put them in bags, keeping each 
kind separate, and labeling them. The bags keep them clean and 
the labels enable one to find them quickly. In the springtime when 
one feels languid and miserable, a cup of boneset or thoroughwort 
tea, taken several mornings in succession, will arouse the sluggish 
liver and make quite a difference in one's feelings. 

For sprains, bruises and rheumatism steep tansy in vinegar, having 
it almost boiling hot; wring woolen cloths out of it and apply, 
changing often. Plantain grows almost everywhere and is very 
useful as a medicine. A strong tea made of the leaves or a poultice 
made of them and applied quite hot to the cheek will relieve facial 
neuralgia. A tea made of the seeds and taken in tablespoonful doses 
every ten minutes is good for sick stomach. 

If it is desirable to preserve plant remedies make a strong 
decoction by steeping in water kept just below boiling point half an 
hour. Strain it and to one pint of the liquid add one gill of alcohol. 
Put it in bottles, cork tightly and it will retain its virtues as long as 
desired. 

Many fruits and vegetables possess valuable medicinal properties. 
Tomatoes, either canned or fresh, are a pleasant remedy for consti- 
pation. Blackberry cordial is an old and well-tried remedy for diar- 
rhea and dysentery. To prepare it get the fresh berries; mash 
them with a potato masher .and let them stand several hours; then 
strain out the juice. To one quart of juice add one pound of granu- 
lated sugar and one heaping teaspoonful each of cloves, cinnamon, 
allspice and nutmeg. All the spices except the nutmeg should be tied 
in a cheesecloth sack before they are put in. Boil until it is a rich 
syrup; put it in bottles and seal while hot. 

Many housewives who have used borax in various ways have 
never known its value as a medicine. It is almost the only antiseptic 
and disinfectant known that is entirely safe to use. Clothes washed 
in borax water are free from infection, and can be worn again 
without fear of contagion. A solution of ten grains of borax to one 
ounce of pure soft water is an excellent lotion for sore eyes. Apply 
it two or three times a day until it strengthens and heals them. Half 
a teaspoonful of borax and a pinch of salt dissolved in a cupful of 
water and used frequently as a gargle will cure sore throat. 

A heaping tablespoonful of table salt or two of mustard stirred 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 51 

into a glass of warm water will start vomiting as soon as it reaches 
the stomach, which is one of the best remedies known for poisoning. 
A teacupful of very strong coffee will nullify the effects of opium, 
morphine or chloroform. 



WHAT TO PUT IN A REMEDY CUPBOARD 

In every house there should be a remedy cupboard. We do not 
mean the ordinary medicine chest with innumerable bottles huddled 
together, but a well-stocked emergency cupboard, easy of access, and 
containing simple remedies for the many aches and pains of humanity. 
Such a medicine chest is considered by some as one of the most 
important pieces of furniture in the house. It should be more like a 
little cupboard than a chest. It may be made of a rather shallow 
box, fitted with shelves, and there should be a door which fastens 
with a lock and key. The key should be kept by the mother, so 
that no one can go to the chest without permission. It should be 
fastened rather high up against the wall. In this chest should be 
kept everything that experience has proven to be essential in the 
treatment of such emergency cases as most mothers have to deal 
with. 

No household is conducted without an occasional accident or 
bruise; burns and ugly cuts are all of frequent occurrence where 
there are children. If there is a place where one can always find 
some soft medicated cotton, bandages of different widths, absorbent 
gauze and a bottle of some antiseptic solution, it will prevent the 
frantic running about when such articles are needed and save to the 
sufferer many throbs of pain. To be thoroughly satisfactory the 
emergency cupboard must be kept in perfect order and systematically 
arranged. For instance, in one compartment keep the every-day 
remedies for coughs and colds, such as quinine and listerine, croup 
kettle, atomizer and a compress and flannel bandages. 

There should be prepared mustard plasters, rolls of court-plaster, 
salves, liniments, lotions, laudanum, pills, porous plasters, castor oil, 
sulphur, salts, camphor, and in fact everything that is needed should 
be found here, and in this way many times the cost of the chest will 
be saved in doctors' bills. Everything should be carefully labeled 
and so arranged that things can almost be found in the dark. 



5 a PRACTICAL RECIPES 



HOW TO KEEP THE BABY WELL 

Many young mothers are anxious to learn all they can about the 
physiology and hygiene of babyhood. Hours of anxiety might be 
spared them if they could only profit by the experience of those who 
have raised large families. 

Babies' hands and feet frequently become cold in a room where 
older people are quite comfortable. This is sometimes caused by 
having the clothing too tight. Keep the temperature of the room as 
near seventy degrees as possible and have it well ventilated, but do 
not allow the little one to lie in a draught, or an attack of colic may be 
the result. Take him out in the fresh air frequently if the weather is 
good, but when the wind is blowing and the air is damp the best 
place for the baby is in the nursery. It is never safe to expose him 
to all kinds of weather in order to get him used to it, for it may cost 
his life. 

Give the baby a bath every day in hot weather, never having the 
water cool enough to cause him to catch his breath, nor warm enough 
to make him cry. He will soon learn to enjoy it. "My baby will laugh 
and clap his hands every time he is put in the water," says one happy 
mother, "and after a few minutes' bath and a good rubbing he is 
ready for a long, refreshing sleep." 

If the baby's head becomes covered with a yellow coating rub 
vaseline well into the scalp, and after it has remained four or five 
hours take a fine-comb and carefully comb it all off; wash thoroughly 
with soft water and good toilet soap as often as may be necessary to 
keep the scalp white and healthy. The vaseline loosens the scurf 
and makes it easy to comb out. 

Nothing is so important as the baby's diet. Of course the 
mother's milk is the food nature intended for him, but frequently the 
supply is not sufficient for his needs, and there are many cases where 
it is impossible for a mother to nurse her baby. Cow's milk is 
sometimes used, but the result is seldom satisfactory. It sours so 
easily in warm weather and is then really poisonous to the little one. 
Then we can never be sure that the cow is healthy, and we seldom 
have any means of knowing what kind of food she eats, or if the 
water she drinks is pure. All these things seriously affect the child's 
health, Various prepared foods are good, but what agrees with one 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 53 

baby may not agree with another, so the effects of the one chosen 
should be carefully watched. It should be freshly prepared for each 
meal; there will then be none of the bad effects that so often follow 
the use of stale food. Do not get into the habit of offering the baby 
the bottle every time he cries, regardless of the cause. He may be 
thirsty, and a few spoonfuls of cold water will quiet him. 

Do not feed a baby with a spoon. It is not nature's way, and the 
sucking motion of the lips and mouth is needed to mix the food with 
the fluids of the mouth and keep it from getting into the stomach too 
fast. Use a plain nursing-bottle with a rubber nipple, which should 
be taken off after each feeding so that both bottle and rubber maybe 
washed thoroughly. Let them soak in hot water two or three times 
every day to destroy any germs that may be left in them. Under no 
circumstances ever use a bottle with a long tube of rubber. Absolute 
cleanliness in everything pertaining to his food is necessary to keep 
the baby healthy. 

Do not put anything in his mouth that needs chewing, until he has 
his teeth. In fact until he is seven months old the prepared food will 
be all that is necessary for him. After that he will take a little 
oatmeal gruel that has been strained through a coarse wire sieve to 
remove the husks, or some of the excellent preparations of wheat now 
on the market. If he is constipated, the juice of stewed fruit is 
beneficial given in small quantities. 



CHAPTER IV 
CONDENSED RULES FOR EMERGENCIES 

Poisons and Their Treatment — Bites, Stings, Bruises, Splinters, Cuts, 
Sprains and Burns — Lockjaw — Poison Ivy — How to Bring the Drowned 
to Life — Suffocation — Fainting — Sunstroke — Freezing — The Eyes and 
How to Care for Them — Earache and Toothache — Felons, Warts, Corns 
and Boils — Home Remedies for Diphtheria— Treatment of Smallpox — 
Convenient Disinfectants — Sick Room Suggestions — Fruit in Sickness — 
An Antidote for Intemperance — Milk Strippings for Consumption — 
Stammering Cured at Home. 

Here are some short and simple rules for quick action in the 
event of accidents. 

For Dust in the Eyes, avoid rubbing, and dash water into them. 
Remove cinders, etc., with the rounded end of a lead pencil or a small 
camel's-hair brush dipped in water. 

Remove Insects from the Ear by tepid water; never put a hard 
instrument into the ear. 

If an Artery Is Cut compress above the wound; if a vein is cut 
compress below. 

If Choked get upon all fours and cough. 

For Light Burns dip the part in cold water; if the skin is destroyed 
cover with varnish. 

Smother a Fire with carpets, etc.; water will often spread burning 
oil and increase the danger. 

Before Passing through Smoke take a full breath and then stoop 
low; but if carbonic acid gas is suspected then walk erect. 

Suck Poisoned Wounds unless your mouth is sore. Enlarge the 
wound, or better, cut out the part without delay. Hold the wounded 
part as long as can be borne to a hot coal or end of a cigar. 

POISONS AND THEIR TREATMENT 

The treatment of poisons in general consists of the use of sub- 
stances which, by combining chemically with an injurious dose, will 
neutralize, as acids with alkalies and vice versa; by solvents, which 

54 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 



55 



take up the poison, as olive oil with carbolic acid; and by emetics 
which produce vomiting and dislodge the poison. The stomach 
pump is also used, if available, to empty the stomach, and for some 
poisons electricity is used. 

If the exact poison is unknown it is best to follow a general plan 
jot treatment. We want an emetic, an antidote and a cathartic. For 
the first a draught of warm water and tickling the throat with a 
finger or a feather will generally succeed. For an antidote that will 
neutralize the great majority of poisons give a mixture of equal parts 
of calcined magnesia, pulverized charcoal and sesquioxide of iron, 
mixed thoroughly. Castor oil is the best cathartic for general use in 
poisoning. 

Here are a few special instructions for the treatment of the more 
common cases of poisoning: 

For carbolic acid give olive oil or castor oil or glycerine. 

For ammonia give frequently a tablespoonful of vinegar or lemon 
juice, and follow this with a cathartic of castor oil. 

For alcohol empty the stomach by emetics, warm salt water, 
repeated at short intervals, being the best. If the head is hot, dash 
cool water upon it. Keep up motion and rubbing and slapping to 
increase the circulation. 

For arsenic, fly poison or paris green, take milk, gruel water with 
starch dissolved in it, oil and lime water. Be sure and empty the 
stomach by vomiting. It may require three or four repetitions of an 
emetic to-dislodge the sticky paste from the walls of the stomach. 
Oil and barley gruel or mucilage water should be given to protect the 
stomach. 

For chloroform and ether, artificial breathing must be stimulated. 
Lower the head of the patient and elevate the legs. Place ammonia 
at the nose to be inhaled, and slap the surface of the chest smartly 
with the fringe of a towel dipped in ice water. 

For sulphate of copper or blue vitriol, give an emetic of warm 
water or mustard and warm water. Do not give vinegar or acids. 
After vomiting give milk or white of egg and oil. 

For mercury poisoning by corrosive sublimate or calomel, give 
promptly the white of eggs mixed in water or milk. Empty the 
stomach by vomiting and then give quantities of egg and water or 
milk or even flour and water. 



56 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

For opium, morphine, laudanum, paregoric or soothing syrup 
poisoning cleanse the stomach thoroughly by vomiting, and then give 
strong coffee. The patient must be kept in constant motion. At the 
same time he must be frequently aroused by smart blows with the 
palm of the hand, or switching, and whipping the body with the wet 
towel. When all else fails artificial respiration should be kept up for 
a long time. 

For phosphorus, heads of matches, etc., use a mixture of hydrated 
magnesia and cold water in repeated draughts, and produce free 
vomiting. The emetic is mustard, flour and water. Do not use oil, 
as it tends to dissolve the phosphorus. 

For strychnine, rat poison and the like give an emetic, and after 
this operates administer draughts of strong coffee. Control the con- 
vulsions by inhaling chloroform, a teaspoonful poured upon a napkin 
and placed near the nostrils. Between paroxysms give chloral 
dissolved in water. The patient should be allowed to go to sleep if 
so inclined and under any circumstances kept perfectly quiet, for any 
shock brings convulsions. 

For venomous snake bites tie a bandage tightly above the point 
of the bite, leave the wound to bleed, and draw from it what poison 
may remain by sucking, unless you have a sore mouth. Cauterize 
the wound with caustics, a hot iron or a hot coal. Give alcoholic 
liquors and strong coffee freely. Dress the wound with equal parts 
of oil and ammonia. 

For poisonous mushrooms give a brisk emetic, then epsom salts 
and then large and stimulating injections to move the bowels, 
followed by ether and alcoholic stimulants. The poison of mush- 
rooms is very similar to that of venomous snake bites. 

RATTLESNAKE BITES CURED BY SWEET OIL 

Few people know that sweet oil, the common olive oil of com- 
merce, the salad oil used on our tables, is a specific for rattlesnake 
bites. Use both internally and externally. Give the patient a 
teaspoonful of oil every hour while nausea lasts. Dip pieces of 
cotton two inches square in the oil and lay the saturated cloth over 
the wound. In twenty minutes or less bubbles and froth will begin to 
appear on the surface of the cloth. Remove the square, burn it, and 
replace it with a fresh square until all the swelling has subsided. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 57 

Where rattlesnakes abound every household should keep a six or 
eight ounce vial of the best oil ready for emergencies. Avoid rancid 
or adulterated oil. No whisky or other stimulant is needed, and in a 
majority of cases the patient is much better off without any other 
so-called relief than that afforded by the oil. 

Relief is accelerated if some one with mouth and lips free from 
sores and cracks will suck the poison from the bite before applying 
the patches of oil-saturated cloth. A few drops of oil taken in the 
mouth before beginning will insure exemption from any disagreeable 
results. 

RATTLESNAKE BITES-A FAVORITE REMEDY 

A favorite remedy for a sufferer from rattlesnake bite, which 
proves very effective, is as follows: Iodide of potassium four grains, 
corrosive sublimate two grains, bromine five drachms. Ten drops of 
this compound taken in one or two tablespoonfuls of brandy or 
whisky make a dose, to be repeated at intervals if necessary. 

POISON IVY, OAK AND SUMAC— REMEDIES 

It is unfortunate that some of the most attractive plants that grow 
in woods, ivy, oak and sumac, for instance, are poisonous in their 
effects. They act differently, however, on different people, for some 
seem not to be susceptible under any circumstances, while others are 
poisoned by simple contact with clothing that has touched the 
noxious plant. The remedies likewise do not in every case affect 
people with the same degree of success. 

Various remedies are used in case of poisoning from ivy. The 
affected parts may be bathed with water in which hemlock twigs or 
oak leaves have been steeped. Fresh lime water and wet salt are 
likewise recommended. Spirits of niter will help to heal the parts 
when bathed freely with it. Another suggestion is to bathe the 
poisoned part thoroughly with clear hot water, and when dry paint 
the place freely three or four times a day with a feather dipped in 
strong tincture of lobelia. A similar application of fluid extract of 
gelsemium sempervirens (yellow jessamine) is likewise very effective. 

BEE AND WASP STINGS— HOW TO SOOTHE THEM 

A beekeeper advises that those who are around bees should have 
a small bottle of tincture of myrrh. As soon as one is stung apply a 



58 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

little of the tincture to the sting, when the pain and swelling cease. 
It will also serve well for bites of spiders and poisonous reptiles. If 
an onion be scraped and the juicy part applied to the sting of wasps 
or bees the pain will be relieved quickly. Ammonia applied to a bite 
from a poisonous snake, or any poisonous animal, or sting of an 
insect, will give immediate relief and will go far toward completely 
curing the injury. It is one of the most convenient caustics to apply 
to the bite of a mad dog. 

BORAX FOR INSECT BITES 

Dissolve one ounce of borax in one pint of water and anoint the 
bites of insects with the solution. This is good for the irritation of 
mosquito bites and even for prickly heat and like summer irritations. 
For the stings of bees or wasps the solution should be twice as 
strong. 

Another Simple Remedy. — For bee or wasp stings bathe the part 
affected with a teaspoonful of salt and soda each in a little warm 
water. Apply the remedy at once after being stung. If this be used 
just after one is stung there will be no swelling. If one is off in the 
field and is stung take a common hog weed and rub the part vigor- 
ously therewith. It will stop the pain and prevent swelling. 

HOW TO TREAT A SPRAIN 

In treating a sprain wring a folded flannel out of boiling water by 
laying it in a thick towel and twisting the ends in opposite directions; 
shake it to cool it a little, lay it on the painful part and cover it with 
a piece of dry flannel. Change the fomentations until six have been 
applied, being careful not to have them so hot as to burn the skin. 
Bandage the part if possible, and in six or eight hours repeat the 
application. As soon as it can be borne, rub well with extract of 
witch hazel. 

HOW TO TAKE SORENESS FROM A CUT MADE BY GLASS 

If one should sustain a wound by stepping on a piece of glass, as 
children frequently do, soreness and much pain may be avoided by 
smoking the wound with slow-burning old yarn or woolen rags. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 59 

NAIL WOUNDS IN THE FOOT— HOW TO RELIEVE THE PAIN 

To relieve from the suffering produced by running a nail in the 
foot of a horse or a man, take peach leaves, bruise them, apply to the 
wound, and confine with a bandage. They give relief almost imme- 
diately and help to heal the wound. Renew the application twice a 
day if necessary, but one application goes far to destroy the pain. 

TURPENTINE FOR LOCKJAW 

A simple remedy recommended for lockjaw is ordinary turpentine. 
Warm a small quantity of the liquid and pour it on the wound, no 
matter where the wound is, and relief will follow immediately. 
Nothing better can be applied to a severe cut or bruise than cold 
turpentine, which is very prompt in its action. 

BRUISES, SPLINTERS, CUTS AND BURNS-SIMPLE REMEDIES 

The Best Treatment for a Bruise is to apply soft cloths wet with hot 
water, and if the contusion is very painful a little laudanum may be 
added to the water. 

To Extract a Splinter from a child's hand, fill a wide-mouthed 
bottle half full of very hot water and place its mouth under the 
injured spot. If a little pressure is used the steam in a few moments 
will extract the splinter. 

Before Bandaging a Cut wash it thoroughly with some antiseptic 
solution. When it is perfectly clean bring the edges together and 
hold in place with warm strips of adhesive plastering. Leave a place 
between them for the escape of blood, and apply a dressing of 
absorbent gauze. When the wound is entirely healed the plaster 
may be easily removed by moistening at first with alcohol. 

The Stinging Pain of a Superficial Burn may be instantly allayed by 
painting with flexible collodion, white of egg, or mucilage. If the 
skin is broken apply a dressing of boracic acid ointment or vaseline. 

BURNS AND THEIR TREATMENT 

Common cooking soda, as found in every kitchen, is a convenient 
remedy for burns and scalds. Moisten the injured part and then 
sprinkle with dry soda so as to cover it entirely and loosely wrap it 
with a wet linen cloth. 



6o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Another convenient remedy for the same kind of injury, if you 
have a mucilage bottle at hand, is to brush or pour a coating of the 
mucilage over the entire injured part. The chief cause for pain from 
burns and scalds is their exposure to the air, and the mucilage' coat- 
ing will keep the air from coming in contact with the inflamed tissue. 

The following is the recommendation of an eminent physician for 
treating burns from gunpowder: 

"In Burns from Gunpowder, where the powder has been deeply 
imbedded in the skin, a large poultice made of common molasses and 
wheat flour, applied over the burnt surface, is the very best thing that 
can be used, as it seems to draw the powder to the surface, and keeps 
the parts so soft that the formation of scars does not occur. It should 
be removed twice a day, and the part washed with a shaving brush 
and warm water before applying the fresh poultice. The poultice 
should be made sufficiently soft to admit of its being readily spread 
on a piece of cotton. In cases in which the skin and muscles have 
been completely filled with the burnt powder we have seen the parts 
heal perfectly without leaving the slightest mark to indicate the posi- 
tion or nature of the injury." 

COLD WATER FOR ORDINARY RECENT BURNS 

The best treatment for ordinary recent burns at first is cold water, 
which soothes and deadens the suffering. The burnt part should, 
therefore, be placed in cold water, or thin cloths dipped in the cool 
liquid should be applied and frequently renewed. In a short time, 
however, the cold water fails to relieve and then rags dipped in 
carron oil (a mixture of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water, 
well shaken before using) should be substituted for the water. When 
the treatment with carron oil begins, however, care should be taken 
to keep the rag moist with it until the burn heals. This is the main 
point in the treatment, so the authorities say. The cloth must not be 
removed or changed. 

TO RELIEVE A SCALDED MOUTH 

To relieve a scald on the interior of the mouth from taking hot 
liquids, gargle with a solution of borax, and then hold in the mouth a 
mucilage of slippery elm, swallowing it slowly if the throat also has 
been scalded. The slippery elm may be mixed with olive oil. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 61 

HOW TO BRING THE APPARENTLY DROWNED TO LIFE 

The bringing to life of those who are apparently drowned is 
something that should be understood by every person, for such 
emergencies may rise at anytime or place when no professional relief 
is at hand. There are astonishing instances of revival after a consid- 
erable time has passed, and it is worth while to persist in the effort 
most energetically and constantly for a long time before hope is 
given up. The following rules for saving the life of those who are 
apparently drowned are made up from various sources, official and 
otherwise, and may be accepted as thoroughly reliable. 

Whatever method is adopted to produce artificial breathing, the 
patient should be stripped to the waist and the clothing should be 
loosened below the waist, so that there shall be no restraint on the 
movement of the chest and body. Lose no time in beginning. 
Remove the froth and mucus from the mouth and nostrils and the 
mud, too, if any has been drawn in. Hold the body for a few seconds 
with the head sloping downward, so that the water may run out of 
the lungs and windpipe. 

The tip of the tongue must be drawn forward and out of the 
mouth, as otherwise it will fall back into the throat and impede 
breathing. This is an important matter, for if it is not done success- 
fully all that would otherwise be gained by artificial breathing may 
not be accomplished. If you are not alone the matter becomes 
simpler. Let a bystander grasp the tongue with a dry handkerchief 
to prevent it slipping from the fingers, or he may cover his fingers 
with sand for the same purpose. If you are alone with the patient 
draw the tongue well out and tie it against the lower teeth in this 
manner: Lay the center of a dry strip of cloth on the tongue, which 
is drawn out over the teeth, and cross it under the chin. Carry the 
ends around the neck and tie them at the sides of the neck, which 
will keep the tongue from slipping back. You are now ready to 
begin the actual restoration of life. 

If the ground is sloping turn the patient upon the face, the head 
down hill; step astride the hips, your face toward the head, lock 
your fingers together under the abdomen, raise the body as high as 
you can without lifting the forehead from the ground, give the body 
a smart jerk to remove the accumulating mucus from the throat and 



62 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

water from the windpipe; hold the body suspended long enough to 
slowly count five; then repeat the jerks two or three times. 

The patient being still upon the ground, face down, and maintaining 
all the while your position astride the body, grasp the points of the 
shoulders by the clothing, or, if the body be naked, thrust your 
fingers into the armpits, clasping your thumbs under the points of 
the shoulders, and raise the chest as high as you can without lifting 
the head quite off the ground and hold it long enough to slowly count 
three. 

Replace the patient slowly upon the ground, with the forehead 
upon the bent arm, the neck straightened out, and the mouth and 
nose free. Place your elbows against your knees and your hands 
upon the sides of his chest over the lower ribs, and press downward 
and inward with increasing force long enough to slowly count two. 
Then suddenly let go, grasp the shoulders as before, and raise the 
chest; then press upon the ribs, etc. These alternate movements 
should be repeated ten to fifteen times a minute for an hour at least, 
unless breathing is restored sooner. Use the same regularity as in 
natural breathing. 

After breathing has commenced and not before, unless there is a 
house very close, get the patient where covering may be obtained, to 
restore the animal heat. Wrap in warm blankets, apply bottles of 
hot water, hot bricks, etc., to aid in the restoration of heat. Warm 
the head nearly as fast as the body, lest convulsions come on. 
Rubbing the body with warm cloths or the hand and gently slapping 
the fleshy parts may assist to restore warmth and the breathing also. 

When the patient can swallow give hot coffee, tea or milk. Give 
spirits sparingly, lest they produce depression. Place the patient in a 
warm bed, give him plenty of fresh air and keep him quiet. 

Another method which is perhaps simpler than the first and 
equally effective is as follows: 

The water and mucus are supposed to have been removed from 
the mouth, and the tongue secured by the means above described. 
The patient is to be placed on his back, with a roll made of a coat or 
a shawl under the shoulders. The nurse should kneel at the head and 
grasp the elbows of the patient and draw them upward until the 
hands are carried above the head and kept in this position until one, 
two, three can be slowly counted. This movement elevates the ribs, 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 63 

expands the chest and creates a vacuum in the lungs into which the 
air rushes, or, in other words, the movement produces inspiration. 
The elbows are then slowly carried downward, placed by the sides 
and pressed inward against the chest, thereby diminishing the size of 
the latter and producing expiration. These movements should be 
repeated about fifteen times during each minute for at least two 
hours, provided the signs of animation present themselves. 

WHEN ONE FALLS INTO THE WATER 

If a person who cannot swim falls into deep water, it is still 
possible in many instances for him to save his own life if he can keep 
his wits about him. Remember that one always rises to the surface 
at once after falling into deep water, and that the person must not 
raise his arms or hands above the water unless there is something to 
take hold of, for the weight thus raised will sink the head below the 
point of safety. Motions of the hands under water, however, will do 
no harm, for in quiet water, with the head thrown back a little, the 
face will float above the surface unless heavy boots and clothing drag 
the person down. The slow motion of the legs as if walking upstairs, 
keeping as nearly perpendicular as possible, will help to keep one 
afloat until aid comes. 

WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF SUFFOCATION 

Suffocation from any cause may be treated in some details the 
same as apparent drowning. 

For suffocation from hanging, remove all the clothing from the 
upper part of the body and proceed to restore breathing in the way 
directed under the subject of drowning. Of course if the neck is 
broken there is no hope in this. 

For suffocation from gas and poisonous vapors, get the person into 
the open air, relieve the lungs of the gas and restore natural 
breathing in the same way as directed in case of drowning. Throw 
cold water upon the face and breast and hold strong vinegar to the 
nostrils of the patient. If oxygen can be obtained promptly, it 
should be forced into the lungs. 

HOW TO REVIVE A FAINTING PERSON 

In a case of fainting lay the patient on his back with his head 
slightly lower than his feet. Be sure that the room is fully ventilated 



<5 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

with fresh air, and rub gently the palms of the hands, the wrists, the 
arms and the forehead. Sprinkle a little cold water upon the face 
and hold to the nose a napkin upon which spirits of camphor, ether, 
ammonia or vinegar has been sprinkled. 

SUNSTROKE AND HOW TO TREAT IT 

In case of sunstroke get the patient into the coolest place you can, 
.oosen the clothes about his neck and waist, lay him down with his 
head a little raised, and cool him off as promptly as possible. Cloths 
wrung out in cold water, applied to the head, wrists and soles of the 
feet, are the simplest applications. In severe cases of extreme pros- 
tration from sunstroke, the patient should be immersed in cold water, 
and even in an ice pack to get prompt results. After a little recovery 
is visible careful nursing is the next important thing. Sunstroke is 
commonly a summer disease, but the same conditions may come 
from overwork in extremely hot rooms. It begins with pain in the 
head, or dizziness, quickly followed by a loss of consciousness and 
complete prostration. The head is often burning hot, the face dark 
and swollen, the breathing labored, and the extremities are cold. If 
the latter detail is observed, mustard or turpentine should be applied 
to the calves of the legs and the soles of the feet, after which the 
hands should be chafed with flannels or with the palms of the hands. 
In case of genuine sunstroke lose no time in calling the doctor. 

FREEZING AND HOW TO TREAT A CASE 

In cases of severe freezing, when a person is apparently frozen to 
death, great caution is needed. Keep the body in a cold place, 
handle it carefully, and rub it with cold water or snow for fifteen or 
twenty minutes. When the surface is red, wipe it perfectly dry and 
rub with bare warm hands. The person should be then wrapped in 
a blanket and breathing restored if possible as already directed. It 
may be necessary to continue the treatment energetically for several 
hours. A little lukewarm water, or wine, or ginger tea is recom- 
mended for the patient to swallow as soon as possible. 

THE EYES AND HOW TO CARE FOR THEM 

Here are some simple and sound rules for care of the eyes, as 
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THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 65 

and study by poor light. Light should come from the side of the 
reader, and not from the back nor from the front. Do not read or 
study while suffering great bodily fatigue or during recovery from 
illness. Do not read while lying down. Do not use the eyes too long 
at a time for anything that requires close application, but give them 
occasional periods of rest. Reading and study should be done sys- 
tematically. During study avoid the stooping position, or whatever 
tends to produce congestion of the blood in the head and face. 
Read with the book on a level with the eyes, or nearly so, instead of 
in your lap. Select well printed books. Correct imperfection in 
sight with proper glasses, not selected carelessly by yourself or bought 
from an irresponsible wandering peddler, but properly fitted by an 
educated optician. Avoid bad hygienic conditions and the use of 
alcohol and tobacco. Take sufficient exercise in the open air. Let 
physical culture keep pace with mental development, for imperfection 
in eyesight is most usually observed in those who are lacking in 
physical development. 

STYES AND THEIR TREATMENT 

A stye is a small boil which projects from the edge of the eyelid, 
and is sometimes much inflamed and very painful. A poultice of 
linseed meal or bread and milk will soothe it and soften it. When the 
stye forms a head showing matter, pierce it with a clean, sharp 
needle and then apply some mild, soothing ointment. 

TO TAKE THE COLOR FROM A BLACK EYE 

A black eye is usually caused by a blow and may be a very disfig- 
uring object. If inflamed and painful wash the eye often with very 
warm water, in which is dissolved a little carbonate of soda. A 
repeated application of cloths wrung out of very hot water gives 
relief. A poultice of slippery elm bark mixed with milk and put on 
warm is also good. To remove the discoloration of the eye bind on 
a poultice made of the root of "Solomon's seal." It is often found 
sufficient to apply the scraped root at bedtime to the closed eye and 
the blackness will disappear by morning. 

TO REMOVE BITS OF DIRT FROM THE EYE 

To remove dirt or foreign particles from the eye take a hog's 
bristle and double it so as to form a loop. Lift the eyelid and gently 



66 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

insert the loop under it. Now close the lid down upon the bristle, 
which may be withdrawn gently and the dirt should come with it. 

Another Process. — Take hold of the upper eyelid with the fore- 
finger and thumb of each hand, draw it gently forward and down 
over the lower lid, and hold it in this position for about a minute. 
When at the end of this time you allow the eyelid to resume its place, 
a flood of tears will wash out the foreign substance, which will be 
found near the lower eyelid. 

If lime gets into the eyes, a few drops of vinegar and water will 
dissolve and remove it. 

Olive oil will relieve the pain caused by any hot fluid that may 
reach the eye. 

A particle of iron or steel may be extracted from the eye by 
holding near it a powerful magnet. 

When Something Gets into Your Eye. — An easy method of removing 
bits of foreign bodies from the eye is to place a grain of flaxseed 
under the lower lid and close the lids. The seed becomes quickly 
surrounded by a thick adherent mucilage which entraps the foreign 
body and soon carries it out from the angle of the eye. 

QUICK RELIEF FOR EARACHE 

To relieve earache take a small piece of cotton batting, depress it 
in the center with the finger and fill up the cavity with ground black 
pepper. Gather it into a ball and tie it with thread. Dip the pepper 
ball into sweet oil and insert it in the ear, then putting cotton over 
the ear and using a bandage or cap to keep it in place. This 
application will give immediate relief and can do no injury. 

Another Remedy — Take a common tobacco pipe, put a wad of 
cotton into the bowl and drop a few drops of chloroform into it. 
Cover this with another wad of cotton, place the pipe stem to the 
suffering ear and blow into the bowl. The chloroform vapor will in 
many cases cause the pain to cease almost immediately. 

INSECTS IN THE EAR-TO REMOVE 

To destroy insects which fly or crawl into the ear, pour a spoonful 
of warm olive oil into the ear and keep it there for some hours by 
means of a wad of cotton batting and a bandage. Afterward it may 
be washed out with warm water and a small syringe. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 67 

TOOTHACHE-A QUICK RELIEF 

One of the best mixtures to relieve acute pain and toothache is 
made as follows: Laudanum, one drachm; gum camphor, four 
drachms; oil of cloves, one-half drachm; oil of lavender, one drachm; 
alcohol, one ounce; sulphuric ether, six drachms, and chloroform, five 
drachms. Apply with lint, or for toothache rub on the gums and 
upon the face against the tooth. 

DISAGREEABLE BREATH-HOW TO CURE 

Of course if the trouble comes from the teeth by decay, it is a case 
for the dentist, and if because the teeth are not properly and fre- 
quently cleaned, the remedy is a toothbrush and a good tooth 
powder. 

Bad breath, however, is frequently the result of low vitality or 
torpidity of the excretory organs, either the skin, bowels, kidneys, 
liver or lungs. Should one of these, the bowels, for instance, become 
affected, the others have more work to do. The lungs then have to 
throw off some of this waste matter, and the result is bad breath. If 
from one of these causes, or from the stomach, or from catarrh in the 
nose, a doctor should be called to treat the difficulty intelligently. 

For temporary cleansing of the breath, however, the following 
recommendations are good: A teaspoonful of listerine to half a 
glass of water makes a wholesome and refreshing gargle and mouth 
wash. No harm is done if some of it be swallowed. A teaspoonful 
of powdered charcoal is a good dose to take. A teaspoonful of 
chlorine water in half a glass of water makes another good mouth 
wash. 

Of course the teeth should be brushed twice a day at all times, 
and the listerine is the best of lotions for that use, particularly when 
used alternately with powdered chalk to whiten the teeth. Do not 
use a brush that is too stiff, and never brush so hard that you make 
the gums bleed. 

TO STOP NOSEBLEED 

A correspondent in the Scientific American declares that the best 
remedy for nosebleed is in the vigorous motion of the jaws, as if in 
the act of chewing. A child may be given a wad of paper or a piece 
of gum and instructed to chew steadily and hard. It is the motion 
of the jaws that stops the flow of blood. 



68 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

HICCOUGHS— A SIMPLE CURE 

A safe and convenient remedy for hiccoughs is to moisten a tea- 
spoonful of granulated sugar with a few drops of vinegar. The dose 
is easy to take and the effect is almost immediate. 

FELONS OR WHITLOWS AND THEIR TREATMENT 

A felon, or whitlow, although not very large, may become not only 
very painful but dangerous if neglected. The milder ones may be 
treated with hot water, cloths and poultices, and if matter forms may 
be relieved by a lancet. There are others, however, which, if 
neglected, gradually affect the bone of the finger where they form, 
and these need the attention of a surgeon as soon as they begin to be 
very troublesome. 

As soon as the finger begins to swell wrap the part affected with 
cloth soaked thoroughly with tincture of lobelia. This rarely fails to 
cure. Another simple remedy is to stir one-half teaspoonful of water 
into one ounce of Venice turpentine until the mixture appears like 
granulated honey Coat the finger with it and bandage. The pain 
should vanish in a few hours. A poultice of linseed and slippery elm 
will help to draw the felon to a head, and when a small white spot in 
the center of the swelling indicates the formation of matter it should 
be carefully opened with the point of a large needle. A poultice of 
powdered hops will help to relieve the pain. 

SIMPLE CURE FOR WARTS 

Oil of cinnamon dropped on warts three or four times a day will 
cause their disappearance, however hard, large, or dense they may be. 
The application gives no pain and causes no suppuration. 

CORNS AND CORN CURES 

Corns are always the result of continued pressure, such as wearing 
shoes too small or not properly fitted to the foot. At first they are 
merely thickenings of the outer skin, but in time they come to be 
connected with the true skin beneath, and even with the muscles. 
There are almost as many corn cures advertised and recommended 
as there are corns, and sometimes they all fail, but here are a few cf 
the most approved; 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 69 

Soak the corn for half an hour in a solution of soda, and after 
paring it as closely as possible without pain apply a plaster of the 
following ingredients: Purified ammonia, two ounces; yellow wax, 
two ounces, and acetate of copper, six drachms. Melt the first two 
together and after removing them from the fire add the copper 
acetate just before they grow cold. Spread this ointment on a piece 
of soft leather or on linen and bind it in place. If this application is 
kept on the corn faithfully for two weeks there should be a certain cure. 

The soft corn occurs between the toes and from the same causes, 
but in consequence of the moisture which reaches it, it remains per- 
manently soft. It may be healed by first cutting away the thick skin 
from the surface, then touching it with a drop of Friar's balsam and 
keeping a piece of fresh cotton for a cushion between the toes. 

Tincture of arnica or turpentine will serve a similar purpose. 

A small piece of lemon bandaged over a corn will help to relieve 
the pain and enable it to be treated to good advantage. 

Corn plasters made of felt, with a hole punched through the 
center, will cushion the troublesome visitor so that it may be treated 
with the proper remedies and the pain be relieved at the same time. 

BOILS AND CARBUNCLES— HOW TO TREAT THEM 

Boils prove that an impurity exists in the blood, and the general 
health should be improved by means of careful diet and regular 
habits. The bowels must be kept open and regular, and the food 
should be simple, easily digested, and not heating. 

Poultice the boil from the beginning with bread and linseed meal 
mixed with a little glycerine or sweet oil. When fully to a head and 
ripened the boil should be opened and the pus drained out. Then 
dress the wound with some soothing ointment spread on soft linen. 

Carbuncles are apt to be much more serious than ordinary boils, 
and are very weakening to the system, in which they show a weakness 
already to exist. They should be carefully poulticed and treated as 
above, but the best advice is to call a good doctor and draw on his 
knowledge of treatment at once. 

THE PROPER WAY TO MAKE A MUSTARD PLASTER 

The making of a mustard plaster may seem a very simple thing, 
yet there are few households in which it is properly done. Care and 



70 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

attention must be given the work in order to have the results satis' 
factory. 

A plaster should never be applied cold to a patient, the shock 
being too great. It should either be mixed with warm water or well 
heated after mixing. Strong ground mustard should be used, a little 
flour added, and the whole stirred to a smooth, thick paste with warm 
borax water, which soothes and prevents too great irritation. Some 
nurses add a teaspoonful of molasses or mix the mustard with the 
white of an egg. When prepared spread a piece of old linen on a warm 
plate, cover with the mixture, lay a second cloth over and apply at 
once. If allowed to remain on until the skin is burned or blistered, 
bathe gently with a little borax water, dry, and rub with vaseline. 

DANGER IN DAMP SHEETS 

Among the dangers which beset travelers in strange hotels and 
elsewhere is the really great peril of sleeping in damp sheets. It is 
hard enough to secure the proper airing of linen and clothes at home. 
Unless each article is unfolded and its position changed until all the 
moisture has been driven out of it, it is really not fully dried. As a 
matter of fact heavy articles, such as sheets, are scarcely ever 
thoroughly dry, and when delicate persons, perhaps fatigued by a 
journey, seek rest in a bed made of them, they risk rheumatism and 
other mischief. In case of doubt it is better to remove the sheets 
from the bed and sleep in the blankets until assured that the linen is 
thoroughly dry. 

TAR AND TURPENTINE FOR DIPHTHERIA 

The vapors of liquid tar and turpentine are of great value in the 
treatment of diphtheria. The process is simple. Pour equal parts of 
turpentine and tar into a tin pan or cup and set fire to the mixture. 
A dense resinous smoke arises which clouds the air of the room. 
The patient immediately experiences relief. The choking and rattle 
in the throat stop, the patient falls into a slumber, and seems to 
inhale the smoke with pleasure. The vapors dissolve the fibrous 
membrane which chokes up the throat in croup and diphtheria, and 
it is coughed up readily. A remedy so convenient and so easily given 
should be in every household for prompt use when necessary. 

Turpentine also is a convenient remedy for croup. Saturate a 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 71 

piece of flannel with it and place the flannel on the throat and chest. 
In a very severe case three or four drops in a lump of sugar may be 
taken internally. 

TO PREVENT PITTING IN SMALLPOX 

By careful treatment, pitting in smallpox may be generally 
prevented. One successful* method is to dissolve India rubber in 
chloroform and then paint the skin where exposed, with this solution, 
by means of a soft camel's-hair brush. When the chloroform has 
evaporated, which it very soon does, a thin film of India rubber is 
left over the face. This relieves itching and irritation, and permits 
the patient to be more comfortable in addition to preventing the 
pitting. Another suggestion is to keep the whole body, face and all, 
covered with calamine, or native carbonate of zinc, which must be 
purified and pulverized for the purpose. It may be shaken onto the 
body from a common pepper box. To assist in relieving the inflam- 
mation sprinkle an ounce of powdered camphor between the under 
sheet and the pad on which it rests, scattering powder the whole length 
of the bed, and freely where the back and shoulders are lying. This 
gives great relief to the sufferer. 

MEDICAL USES OF WHITE OF EGG 

It may not be generally known that there is nothing more soothing 
for either a burn or a scald than the white of an egg. It is contact 
with the air which makes a burn so painful, and the egg acts as a 
varnish, and excludes the air completely, and also prevents inflam- 
mation. An egg beaten up lightly, with or without a little sugar, is a 
good remedy in cases of dysentery and diarrhea; it tends by its 
emollient qualities to lessen the inflammation, and by forming a 
transient coating for the stomach and intestines gives those organs a 
chance to rest until nature shall have assumed her healthful sway 
over the diseased body. Two, or at the most three, eggs a day would 
be all that would be required in ordinary cases, and since the egg is 
not only medicine but food, the lighter the diet otherwise and the 
quieter the patient is kept the more rapid will be the recovery. 

LEMONS OF VALUE IN MANY USES 

Lemons have a very wide variety of uses. For all people, either 
in sickness or in health, lemonade is a safe drink. It corrects 



72 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

biliousness. It is a specific or positive cure for many kinds of worm 
and skin diseases. Lemon juice is the best remedy known to prevent 
and cure scurvy. If the gums are rubbed daily with lemon juice it 
will keep them in health. The hands and the nails are also kept 
clean, white and soft by the daily use of lemon instead of soap. It 
also removes freckles and prevents chilblains. Lemon used in inter- 
mittent fever is mixed with strong, hot black tea, or coffee without 
sugar. Neuralgia may be relieved by rubbing the part affected 
with a lemon. It is valuable also for curing warts, and it will destroy 
dandruff on the head by rubbing the roots of the hair with it. 

PAINTED WALLS BEST FOR SICK ROOMS 

The walls of the room used for sickly members of a family should 
be painted so they can be easily washed. The painted wall is the 
only clean wall. A papered wall is an abomination where there is 
sickness, and a plastered wall can be made safe only by frequent 
whitewashing. But the painted wall may be washed with disinfect- 
ants when necessary, and when painted some dainty shade it is never 
a trial to sick eyes. 

VALUE OF PLANTS IN THE SICK ROOM 

It was once thought that it was injurious to the sick to have plants 
growing in the room, and science never did a kinder thing than when 
it proved the contrary to be true. 

TO AVOID CONTAGION IN THE SICK ROOM 

If it is necessary to enter a sick room, particularly where there is 
fever, these simple rules should be observed to avoid contagion. 
Never enter fasting. At least take a few crackers or some such 
simple food before going in. Do not stand between the patient and 
the door where the current of air would naturally strike you. Avoid 
sitting on or touching the bed clothes as much as possible, and do not 
inhale the patient's breath. The hands should always be washed in 
clean water before leaving the room, in order not to carry infection 
by them to other people or things you may need to touch. After 
visiting a fever patient change the clothes if possible. As soon as a 
fever is over and the patient is convalescent, the dress which has been 
used by the nurse should be fumigated in the same manner as the 
bedding, as already explained. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 73 

LIME AND CHARCOAL AS DISINFECTANTS 

Housekeepers are gradually being educated up to a more practical 
knowledge of the laws of sanitation, and are coming to understand 
that cleanliness consists in something more than scrubbing the floors 
and washing the windows. Hence the following hint: A barrel each 
of lime and charcoal in the cellar will tend to keep that part of the 
house dry and sweet. A bowl of lime in a damp closet will dry and 
sweeten it. A dish of charcoal in a closet or refrigerator will do 
much toward making these places sweet. The power of charcoal to 
absorb odors is much greater directly after it has been burned than 
when it has been exposed to the air for a length of time. Charcoal 
may be purified and used again by heating it to a red heat. The 
lime must be kept in a place where there is no danger of its getting 
wet, and not exposed to the air 

CHLORIDE OF LIME AS A DISINFECTANT 

Chloride of lime is a great purifier and disinfectant. One pound 
of it mixed with three gallons of water makes a solution which may 
be used for many purposes. To purify rooms sprinkle it on the floor 
and even on the bed linen. Infected clothes should be dipped in it 
and wrung out just before they are washed. The lime without water 
may be sprinkled about slaughter houses, sinks, water closets and 
wherever there are offensive odors, and in a few days the smell will 
pass away. The odor of decaying vegetables or of dead animals is 
'soon dispersed by the lime. 

HOW TO PURIFY FOUL WATER 

Two ounces of permanganate of potash thrown into a cistern will 
purify foul water sufficiently to make it drinkable. This is the disin- 
fectant known as "Condy's solution." It is used in destroying the 
odors in the hold of vessels, and for many other disinfectant uses. 

A WORD CONCERNING GOOD DIGESTION 

In a recent novel one of the characters — a woman, of course — is 
made to speak the following interesting sentiments about husbands: 
"The very best of them don't properly know the difference between 
their souls and their stomachs, and they fancy they are wrestling 



74 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

with their doubts, when really it is their dinners that are wrestling 
with them. Now, take Mr. Bateson hisself; a kinder husband or 
better Methodist never drew breath, yet so sure as he touches a bit of 
pork he begins to worry hisself about the doctrine of election till 
there's no living with him. And then he'll sit in the front parlor and 
engage in prayer for hoursat a time till I say to him, 'Bateson,' says 
I, 'I'd be ashamed to go troubling the Lord with such a prayer when 
a pinch of carbonate o' soda would set things straight again.' " 

A PRACTICAL SPRING REMEDY 

It is nourishing and helps to clear out the system, to give sulphur 
and molasses every night for nine days some time during the spring. 
Sulphur and cream of tartar may be given instead. This may be 
made into little pills, using a little molasses to form a paste, and each 
pill being rolled in sugar. 

CASTOR OIL-MAKING IT EASY TO TAKE 

Castor oil may be taken with ease if its taste be disguised. One 
way is to put a tablespoonful of' orange juice in a glass, pour the 
castor oil into the center of the juice, where it will stay without 
mixing, and then squeeze a few drops of lemon juice upon the top of 
the oil, rubbing some of the same juice on the edge of the glass. The 
person who drinks the dose without delay will find the nauseous 
flavor completely covered. 

The French administer castor oil to children in a novel way. 
They pour the oil into a pan over the fire, break an egg into it and 
"scramble" them together. When it is cooked they add a little salt 
or sugar or some jelly, and the sick child eats it agreeably without 
discovering the disguise. 

Castor oil may be beaten with the white of an egg until they are 
thoroughly mixed and not difficult to take. 

CREAM OF TARTAR A MILD CATHARTIC 

Cream of tartar is a good laxative. Take a teaspoonful mixed 
with a little sugar in a cup of warm water at night. If it does not 
have the desired effect, repeat the dose in the morning. It will often 
work off colds and other maladies in their incipient stage. 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 75 

BOILED MILK FOR BOWEL DISEASES 

Boiled milk, taken while still hot, is one of the best of foods in 
almost all bowel complaints, and is very successful as a remedy. In 
India, where the climate produces many such ailments, it is in 
constant use for such purposes. A physician in practice there says 
that a pint every four hours will check the most violent diarrhea, 
stomach ache, incipient cholera or dysentery. It is soothing and 
healing to the whole digestive tract. No patient will need other food 
during bowel troubles, so that the same simple preparation serves at 
once for medicine and nourishment. 



WHEN TO EAT FRUIT AND WHY 

If people ate more fruit they would take less medicine and have 
much better health. There is an old saying that fruit is gold in the 
morning and lead at night. As a matter of fact it may be gold at 
both times, but it should be eaten on an empty stomach, and not as a 
dessert, when the appetite is satisfied and the digestion is already 
sufficiently taxed. Fruit taken in the morning before the fast of the 
night has been broken is very refreshing, and it serves as a stimulus 
to the digestive organs. A ripe apple or an orange may be taken at 
this time with good effect. Fruit to be really valuable as an article 
of diet should be ripe, sound and in every way of good quality, and if 
possible it should be eaten raw. Instead of eating a plate of ham and 
eggs and bacon for breakfast, most people would do far better if they 
took some grapes, pears or apples — fresh fruit as long as it is to be 
had, and after that they can fall back on stewed prunes, figs, etc. If 
only fruit of some sort formed an important item in their breakfast 
women would generally feel brighter and stronger, and would have 
far better complexions than is the rule at present. 



FOR FEVER OR SORE THROAT PATIENTS 

Put some ice in a towel and crush it until it is as fine as snow and 
of an even fineness. Then squeeze on it the juice of an orange or 
lemon, and sprinkle over it a little sugar. It is a very pleasant food 
for persons suffering with sore throat. 



7 6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

WAKEFULNESS CURED BY LEMON JUICE 

The wakefulness that comes from drinking too strong tea or 
coffee can be conquered, says a household informant, by swallowing 
a dash of fresh lemon juice from a quartered lemon, placed in readi- 
ness on the bedside table, and taken at the time you discover that 
sleep will not come. 

FRUIT AS AN ANTIDOTE FOR INTEMPERANCE 

A writer in a European temperance journal calls attention to the 
value of fruit as an antidote to the craving for liquor. He says: "In 
Germany, a nation greatly in advance of other countries in matters 
relative to hygiene, alcoholic disease has been successfully coped 
with by dieting and natural curative agencies. I have said that the 
use of fresh fruit is an antidote for drink craving, and this is true. 

"The explanation is simple. Fruit may be called nature's medi- 
cine. Every apple, every orange, every plum and every grape is a 
bottle of medicine. An orange is three parts water — distilled in 
nature's laboratory — but this water is rich in peculiar fruit acids 
medicinally balanced, which are specially cooling to the thirst of the 
drunkard and soothing to the diseased state of his stomach. An 
apple or an orange, eaten when the desire for 'a glass' arises, would 
generally take it away, and every victory would make less strong each 
recurring temptation. 

"The function of fresh fruit and succulent vegetables is not so 
much to provide solid nourishment as to supply the needful acids of 
the blood. Once get the blood pure and every time its pure nutri- 
ent stream bathes the several tissues of the body it will bring away 
some impurity and leave behind an atom of healthy tissue, until, in 
time, the drunkard shall stand up purified — in his right mind." 

HOME REMEDY FOR CONSUMPTION 

Dr. B. J. Kendall, of Saratoga Springs, New York, urges the use 
of milk strippings in curing consumption. He says that milk 
strippings taken in large quantities immediately after milking, before 
the animal heat has departed, are the most potent remedy known for 
building up a poor, debilitated person who is suffering with consump- 
tion. "This was only a theory of mine years ago," he says, "but 



THE WAY TO PERFECT HEALTH 77 

now I know it to be a fact, for I have demonstrated it to be so. I 
wish to say it emphatically. If you want to get well drink a quart of 
strippings. I do not mean any milk from any cow, however poor 
milk she may give, nor do I mean to take it in a haphazard sort of a 
way, cold or warmed up or just as it may best suit your convenience; 
but take it regularly, at the proper time, and in the proper manner, 
and have all your diet and habits regulated by proper hygienic laws." 

STAMMERING CURED AT HOME 

It is said that stammering can be cured by this plan: Go into a 
room alone with a book and read aloud to yourself for two hours, 
keeping your teeth tightly shut together. Do this every two or 
three days, or once a week if very tiresome, always taking care to 
read slowly and distinctly, moving the lips, but not the teeth. Then 
when conversing with others try to speak as slowly as possible, keep- 
ing your mind made up not to stammer. Undoubtedly your teeth 
and jaws will ache while you are doing it, but the result will be good 
enough to pay for the discomfort. 



CHAPTER V 
MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 

Leather Boots Made Waterproof — Glue, Cement, Mucilage and Paste — ink 
for All Purposes — Colored Crayons and Pencils — Paint and Whitewash 
— Soft Soap and Hard Soap — Rats and How to Get Rid of Them — Wood 
Made Fireproof — To Preserve Wood from Decay — Furniture Repairing 
— To Harden Lamp Chimneys — A Hundred Handy Suggestions. 

It is the small annoyances of life, many a time, that are more 
troublesome than the really important difficulties with which we have 
to contend. It is equally true that often we get more real relief and 
service from some seemingly trifling suggestion than from a whole 
book full of learning on a ponderous subject. Here in the following 
chapter is gathered a long list of little suggestions, brief, practical 
and plain, of the kind that may serve in many a puzzling situation. 

LEATHER BOOTS MADE WATERPROOF 

Leather boots may be made waterproof by any one of the follow- 
ing methods: 

Melt two pounds of old rubber from rubber boots with one ounce 
of resin and one pint of neat's-foot oil. Pour the liquid from the cloth 
that was in the old boots and apply it warm to the leather ones, which 
will be made water and snow proof. 

Melt together one ounce each of resin and beeswax and four 
ounces of beef tallow, adding six ounces of neat's-foot oil when the 
mixture is nearly cool. Warm the leather boots before the fire and 
then rub the mixture on them with a soft rag. It will require two 
thorough applications to make the leather entirely waterproof. 

A mixture of one part mutton tallow and two parts beeswax 
melted together makes a very good waterproofing for leather. 
Another is made of one pint linseed oil, one-fourth pint spirits of tur- 
pentine, four ounces each of beeswax and Burgundy pitch, and one- 
fourth ounce ivory black. These should be melted together over a 
firel 

78 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 79 

TO PATCH SHOES WITH CEMENT 

Shoes may be patched by cementing on a leather patch instead of 
sewing it, with equally good results. The cement is made of one part 
pure gutta percha cut into small bits and six parts sulphide of carbon. 
This can be kept in a bottle for use at all times. Cut the patch 
somewhat larger than the hole and make it thin at the edge, so that 
it will join smoothly with the shoe. Clean the place thoroughly and 
put a coat of the cement on each piece of leather. Have them both 
warm and press the patch on with a warm flat iron, something solid 
being in the shoe at the time to keep it from yielding. 

PASTE FOR MENDING RUBBER BOOTS 

To mend rubber boots cut one pound of rubber into thin, small 
slices, and melt it over a slow fire until it becomes liquid. Then add 
one-half pound of powdered resin and continue the melting process. 
When the liquid is smooth and thin gradually stir in three or four 
pints of spirits of turpentine. This prevents the rapid thickening and 
hardening of the compound and the mixture will serve for mending 
rubber or gluing rubber surfaces. There must be no blaze, for fear 
of catching the turpentine on fire, as it is quite explosive. 

CEMENT FOR RUBBER OR LEATHER 

Dissolve an ounce of gutta percha in half a pound of chloro- 
form. Clean the parts to be cemented; cover each with the solution 
and let dry for twenty or thirty minutes. Then warm each part in 
the flame of a candle and press firmly together till dry. 

LIQUID CEMENT FOR GENERAL USE 

A cheap cement for general purposes is made from the following 
ingredients: White glue, one pound; gum shellac, one ounce; alco- 
flhol, four ounces; aqua ammonia, one ounce; soft water, two and 
one-half pints; dried pulverized white lead, four ounces. Dissolve 
the shellac in the alcohol and dissolve the glue in the water by 
heating. When the glue is dissolved stir in the dissolved shellac and 
the powdered lead, put in the ammonia to keep it in liquid form, and 
bottle it. This does not need to be applied hot, but when used the 
parts to be joined must be kept in place till the glue is dry. 



80 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

GLUE AND CEMENT RECIPES 

Waterproof Glue. — -Boil eight parts of common glue with about 
thirty parts of water until a strong solution is obtained; add four and 
a half parts of boiled linseed oil, and let the mixture boil two or 
three minutes, stirring it constantly. 

Waterproof Cement for Cast Iron Pipes, Etc. — Take equal weights 
in dry powder, of burnt lime, Roman cement, pipe clay and loam, and 
knead the whole with about one-sixth the weight of linseed oil. The 
addition of more Roman cement improves the quality. 

Cement Which Resists Moisture and Heat but not the direct appli- 
cation of fire, for gas and steam pipes and similar purposes: Two 
parts (by weight) of red lead, five parts of white lead, four parts of 
pipe clay, fine and dry and work the whole into a stiff mass with 
boiled linseed oil. 

Rustproof Cement for Water and Steam Pipes, Steam Boilers, Etc. — Make 
a stiff paste with two parts (by weight) sal ammoniac, thirty-five parts 
of iron-borings, one part sulphur and water, and drive it into the joint 
with a chisel; or to two parts of sal ammoniac and one part flowers 
of sulphur add sixty parts of iron chips, and mix the whole with water 
to which one-sixth part vinegar or a little sulphuric acid is added. 
Another cement is made by mixing one hundred parts of bright iron- 
filings or fine chips of borings with one part powdered sal ammoniac, 
and moistening with urine; when thus prepared force it into the 
joint. It will prove serviceable under the action of fire. 

Stove Cement for the Joints of Iron Stoves. — Mica, together with 
finely sifted wood ashes, an equal quantity of finely powdered clay, and 
a little salt. When required for use add enough water to make a 
stiff paste. 

Iron Cement, Unaffected by Red Heat. — Four parts iron-filings, two 
parts clay, one part fragment of a Hessian crucible; reduce to 
the size of rape seed and mix together, working the whole into a i 
stiff paste with a saturated solution of salt. A piece of fire brick can 
be used instead of the Hessian crucible. 

Cement for Fastening Wood to Stone. — Melt together four parts pitch 
and one part wax, and add four parts brick dust or chalk. It is to be 
warmed for use, and applied thinly to the surfaces to be joined. 

Japanese Cement from Rice.— The Japanese make cement by mixing 










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Miscellaneous recipes 8i 

powdered rice with cold water and then gradually adding boiling 
water till it reaches the proper thickness. It must be well stirred 
all the time and must be boiled for one minute at the end. This 
paste is convenient for fancy work of paper or other goods requiring 
a strong and colorless mixture. It is almost transparent. 

MUCILAGE, PASTE AND GLUE 

The Simplest Mucilage for Household Use is made by putting gum 
arabic or gum tragacanth into a bottle and covering it with warm 
water, leaving it to dissolve. It is easy to test the quantity necessary 
in making small amounts of the mucilage, but remember that these 
gums swell very much when water is poured upon them. 

Here Is a Paste which can be used for spreading on sheets of paper 
which are to be gummed and cut apart for labels: Soak four ounces 
of good glue in a pint of water for one day, after which add half a 
pound of loaf sugar and three ounces of gum arabic. When these 
are dissolved it should be stirred into even consistency and then can 
be brushed onto the sheets of paper, which will not wrinkle or get 
brittle when dried, nor will the sheets stick together when they are 
piled upon each other. 

Equal Parts of Common Pitch and Gutta Percha, melted in an iron 
vessel, will make a cement which is not attacked by water and sticks 
firmly to leather, wood, stone, glass, porcelain, ivory, paper, feathers, 
wool, cotton, linen and many other substances which common muci- 
lage and glue will not adhere to. 

Four Ounces of Glue soaked in one pint of new milk over night 
and then boiled with care, so as not to burn, will make a glue which 
resists dampness much better than ordinary glue or mucilage. 

Liquid Glue which is always ready for use can be made as follows: 
Take two ounces of white glue and four ounces of vinegar. Put 
these into a wide-mouthed bottle and set the bottle in cold water, 
letting it come to a boil gradually and boiling until the glue is dis- 
solved. Then add one ounce of alcohol and keep corked for use. 

INK FOR ALL PURPOSES 

Inks for household use are so cheap that they are better bought 
as they come from the manufacturer in any store than to buy the 



82 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ingredients and make them, but if anyone wants to put inks on the 
market a few recipes will be of service. 

A Good Ink, Black from the First, which will not fade, is made with 
logwood chips, one ounce; powdered nutgalls, twelve ounces; acetate 
of copper, one-half ounce; purified copperas, three ounces; gum 
arabic, two ounces, and soft water, one gallon. Boil the logwood in 
water until the liquid is thoroughly colored, usually less than two 
hours. After cooling strain it and then put in the other ingredients 
and boil it again. This must be left some time before using, till it 
becomes fully fixed in its deep blackness, when it may be strained 
and bottled. If evaporation reduces the quantity very much, make 
up the difference with more hot soft water. By putting in three 
ounces of pulverized sugar it becomes a good copying ink. Strain 
and bottle for use. 

A Fine Ink, Intensely Black When Dry, but easy flowing and bluish- 
green at first, is made as follows: Twelve ounces of nutgalls, eight 
ounces sulphate of indigo, eight ounces copperas, a dozen cloves, 
four ounces gum arabic and three quarts of water. This makes a 
gallon of ink. The addition of a little sulphuric acid renders the ink 
more permanent and less likely to mould. 

A New Black Ink. — Lactate of iron, fifteen grains; powdered gum 
arabic, seventy-five grains; powdered sugar, half a drachm; gallic 
acid, nine grains; hot water, three ounces. 

A Convenient Ink for Travelers may be prepared in this fashion: 
Soak a sheet of thick filtering paper in a very concentrated solution 
of the aniline color you desire, and allow it to dry, and then soak it 
again to make it absorb more color. When you wish to write, it is 
only necessary to tear off a small piece of the paper and let it soak in 
a little water, and you have a very good ink ready at hand. 

A Durable White Ink may be made by thoroughly mixing a little 
finely ground oxide of zinc with a small quantity of thin mucilage 
water made by dissolving gum arabic in warm water. 

To Make Green Ink, boil two ounces of acetate of copper and one 
ounce of cream of tartar in eight ounces of water until it is reduced 
to four ounces. Strain, and when cool bottle the liquid. 

To Make Indelible Ink for Marking Clothing, take a tablespoonful 
of rain-water, half a teaspoonful of vinegar and a small stick of 
nitrate of silver or lunar caustic. Put these in a small bottle and 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 83 

keep in a dark place till dissolved. To use this, wet the place upon 
which the name is to be written, with milk in which has been dissolved 
baking soda, a piece as big as a grain of corn to each teaspoonful. 
Press the damp spot with a hot iron and then write the name imme- 
diately with a quill pen with the indelible ink. 

SYMPATHETIC INKS FOR. SECRET WRITING 

Sympathetic inks are those liquids which may be used for writing 
without leaving visible traces on the paper, but which, through the 
agency of heat, or by the action of chemicals, are made to appear in 
various colors. There are many such inks known to chemists, some 
of them very simple and some intricate compounds. Rice water may 
be used as a writing fluid and on the application of iodine the letters 
appear in blue. If writing be executed on paper with a clean quill 
pen dipped in onion juice or turnip juice it becomes absolutely invis- 
ible when dry, and when the paper is heated the writing at once 
appears in brown. Lemon, apple, orange and pear juices likewise 
may be used in the same way. A diluted solution of chloride of 
copper used for writing is invisible until the paper is heated, when 
the letters are seen of a beautiful yellow, disappearing again when 
the heat is withdrawn. 

An Ink Which Makes Visible Writing, but will absolutely fade from 
the paper within four weeks is made by dissolving soluble iodide of 
starch in water. 

An Ink Which Writes Invisibly, and may be made visible, may be 
obtained as follows: Use a solution of nitrate or chloride of cobalt 
or chloride of copper and mix with a little mucilage or sugar. 
Writing with this mixture will be made visible in brown by warming 
the paper over the stove or over a burning match. 

You Can Erase Ink from Paper and leave the sheet as if it had 
never been written on, with solutions of cyanide of potassium and 
oxalic acid. Wash the writing carefully with a soft camel's-hair brush 
dipped alternately in these solutions. 

KEEPING INK OR PASTE FROM MOULDING 

If you wish to keep ink, mucilage or paste from moulding add a 
small quantity of carbolic acid. An ounce of the acid put in the 
whitewash used in a cellar, basement or hen-house purifies them. 



84 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

COLORED INKS AND CRAYONS FROM DYES 

The ordinary diamond dyes and other package dyes of similar 
character sold in the drug stores are very convenient for making inks, 
and for various other purposes. For black ink use the slate-colored 
dye; for red ink, the magenta; and for purple, violet and green use 
the dyes of the same color. 

To Make Ordinary Writing Ink, moisten the dye with a little cold 
water, then add a pint of boiling water and stir until dissolved. 

For Copying Ink use but half the quantity of water and add two 
ounces of rock candy. 

For Stamping Ink for Rubber Stamps, dissolve the powder in four 
ounces of glycerine. 

Colored Crayons for School Use can be made from the cheap white 
crayons and the same dyes. Dissolve the dyes according to the 
directions for coloring wool, and soak the crayons in the hot dye for 
about fifteen minutes. Keep them warm for about twelve hours, and 
when dried they will be ready for use. 

FIREPROOF PAPER AND INK 

Fireproof paper can be made from pulp consisting of 10 parts 
of vegetable fiber, 20 parts of asbestos, 1 part of borax, 2 parts of 
alum. 

The ink to use on it is made from 85 parts of graphite, 8 parts of 
copal varnish, 7.5 parts of copperas, 30 parts of tincture of nutgalls, 
and a sufficient quantity of indigo carmine. 

SAFETY PAPER FOR BANK CHECKS 

Paper may be prepared for bank checks and legal documents, so 
that any writing in ink once made thereon cannot be altered without 
leaving plainly visible marks, by passing the sheets through a solution 
composed of .015 grains of gallic acid to 1 gill of distilled water. 

COLORED PENCILS 

Colored pencils for writing upon glass, porcelain, metal, etc., may 
be made as follows: Black— Ten parts of lampblack, forty parts of 
white wax, ten parts tallow. White — Forty parts white lead, twenty 
parts wax, ten parts tallow. Blue— Ten parts Berlin blue, twenty 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 85 

parts wax, ten parts tallow. Dark blue — Fifteen parts Berlin blue, 
five parts gum arabic, ten parts tallow. Yellow — Ten parts chrome 
yellow, twenty parts wax, ten parts tallow. 

PRACTICAL ADVICE ON DYES AND DYEING 

The time has passed, along with the stage-coach and other valuable 
things of earlier days, when housekeepers found it wise to use com- 
plicated recipes for dyeing their cloth. Such package dyes as are for 
sale in every store for a few cents are reliable, convenient, speedy, 
and cheaper than the old methods which used logwood, blue vitriol, 
potash, acids and other ingredients, not always either common or 
cheap. It is better advice to suggest buying such package dyes than 
it is to fill these pages with such recipes. 

LIQUID BLACKING FOR LEATHER 

A liquid blacking, which may be used for dressing any leather, 
from carriage tops to ladies' slippers, maybe made as follows: Take 
one quart of alcohol, one-half pound gum shellac, four ounces gum 
camphor and one ounce lampblack. Dissolve the shellac in the 
alcohol, which may take some days; then break up the gum camphor 
and put it into the solution. When it is dissolved add the lamp- 
black. This blacking is waterproof and very serviceable. 

LUMINOUS OR NIGHT-SHINING PAINTS 

Luminous paints have many uses for night signs, clock faces, house 
numbers and other things. Here are recipes for many colors: 

For Orange Luminous Paint, 46 parts varnish are mixed with 17.5 
parts prepared barium sulphate, one part prepared India yellow, 1.5 
parts prepared madder lake, and 38 parts luminous calcium sulphide. 

For Yellow Luminous Paint, 48 parts varnish are mixed with 10 
parts prepared barium sulphate, 8 parts barium chromate, and 34 
parts luminous calcium sulphide. 

For Green Luminous Paint, 48 parts varnish are mixed with 10 parts 
prepared barium sulphate, 8 parts chromium oxide green, and 34 parts 
luminous calcium sulphide. 

A Blue Luminous Paint is prepared from 42 parts varnish, 10.2 parts 
prepared barium sulphate, 6.4 parts ultramarine blue, 5.4 parts cobalt 
blue, and 46 parts luminous calcium sulphide. 



86 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

A Violet Luminous Paint is made from 42 parts varnish, 10.2 parts 
prepared barium sulphate, 2.8 parts ultramarine violet, 9 parts 
cobaltous arsenate, and 36 parts luminous calcium sulphide. 

For Gray Luminous Paint, 45 parts of varnish are mixed with 6 
parts prepared barium sulphate, 6 parts prepared calcium carbonate, 
5 parts ultramarine blue, 6.5 parts gray zinc sulphide. 

A Yellowish-brown Luminous Paint is obtained from 48 parts var- 
nish, 10 parts precipitated barium sulphate, 8 parts orpiment, and 34 
parts luminous calcium sulphide. 

Luminous Colors for Artists' Use are prepared by using East India 
poppy oil in the same quantity instead of the varnish, and taking 
particular pains to grind the materials as fine as possible. 

For Luminous Oil-color Paints, equal quantities of pure linseed are 
used in place of the varnish. The linseed oil must be cold-pressed 
and thickened by heat. 

All These Luminous Paints can be used in the manufacture of colored 
papers, etc., if the varnish is altogether omitted and the dry mixtures 
are ground to a paste with water. 

The luminous paints can also be used as wax colors for painting 
on glass and similar objects by adding instead of the varnish ten per 
cent more of Japanese wax and one-fourth the quantity of the latter 
of olive oil. The wax colors prepared in this way may also be used 
for painting upon porcelain, and are then carefully burned without 
access of air. Paintings of this kind can also be treated with water 
glass. 

RELIABLE WHITEWASH RECIPES 

A whitewash which can be applied to any wall and will become 
waterproof so as to bear washing is made as follows: Take two parts 
freshly slaked lime still warm, two parts of burnt porcelain clay, 
three parts of broken marble and sandstone and three parts of sili- 
cious rock. All of these must be pounded to powder. Any coloring 
which can be used with lime may be added. Mix a wash with water 
and apply thickly to the wall. Let it dry one day and from that time 
on the more water is put on it the harder it gets. This wash can be 
cleansed with water without losing any of its color and will become 
so hard that it can even be brushed 

To Make a Whitewash for Outdoor Use, on wooden or brick walls, 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 87 

slake half a bushel of good lime in boiling water in a covered vessel 
and strain it through a sieve. Add a peck of salt dissolved in a small 
quantity of hot water, three pounds of rice boiled with water to a 
thin paste, one pound of Spanish whiting, one pound of glue softened 
by soaking in water and then dissolved, and five gallons of hot water. 
Stir, cover from dust, and allow to stand several days. Apply hot. 
This will not be washed off by rain. 

GOOD KALSOMINE 

To make kalsomine, dissolve one-fourth pound of glue to each ten 
pounds of whiting, and mix with sufficient water to give it the right 
consistency. To tint it dissolve a package of diamond dye in a quart 
of water and add as much of this as is necessary to give the color 
desired. One package will tint an ordinary bucketful of kalsomine 
with a good strong color. 

GOOD SOFT SOAP RECIPE 

To make soft soap, save ashes from hard wood until you have a 
hopper full. Pour on boiling water — a pailful at a time — until enough 
strong lye has been procured. Boil the grease in this lye until it 
flows from a stick like thick molasses. There is little danger of 
getting too much grease. The lye will consume what is needed and 
no more. If there is too much simply skim it off when the soap 
becomes cold. 

When the soap does not boil thick like molasses it may be too 
strong or too weak, or it may be dirty. Either of these causes would 
prevent it from becoming thick. If the ashes have not been kept free 
from dust and dirt there is apt to be trouble. Let the thin soap 
settle, then carefully drain it off, return it to a clean kettle and try it 
again. ] If you know it is clean, and boiling does not thicken it, then 
it is too strong, and you must add rainwater, a very little at a time, 
until it becomes thick. 

To save the soap grease without having it sour, let it accumulate 
for a week or two, then boil it in a little lye, strain it, and put it away 
in a jar kept for the purpose until needed. Everything at all greasy 
can be made use of, even bits of fried ham, for when it is boiled, 
skimmed and strained it is all perfectly good for soap making. 

All scraps of fat and skin intended for use in making soap should 
be cooked before putting away. 



88 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

SOFT SOAP MADE AT HOME 

To make soft soap, dissolve one pound of concentrated lye in two 
gallons of soft water, and when it boils add four pounds of soap 
grease. When it boils till it becomes clear add two gallons more of 
soft water. You will have to judge for yourself how much cold water 
to add to bring it to the consistency you like. 

HARD SOAP— A SIMPLE RECIPE 

To make hard soap with concentrated lye, dissolve two boxes of 
lye in five gallons of soft water, then add half a pound of resin, 
broken finely and boil till dissolved, stirring well. Then add half a 
pound of borax and nine pounds of soap grease in small pieces, and 
boil about two hours, or till the grease is taken up and it becomes 
soap. If the grease you use is salty already, stir in half a tumbler of 
salt, but if not, it will require a full tumbler of salt dissolved in half a 
gallon of warm water. Stir this in and boil for half an hour longer. 
Soak a tub well in cold water and pour in the soap and let it stand till 
cold, after which cut it out into cakes and put in a cool place to dry. 

ANOTHER. RECIPE FOR HARD SOAP 

Take three gallons of soft water, six pounds of sal soda and two 
pounds of unslaked lime, boiling them together until the soda is dis- 
solved and the lime slaked. Let it settle and pour off the clear 
liquid. Put this on the fire again with six pounds of clear grease 
and boil till it comes to soap. Put in a little sassafras oil or oil of cara- 
way for perfume, and then prepare it in bars as suggested heretofore. 

HOW TO TEST SOAP 

To test soap, shave off a small piece, wet it and put in a hot 
place for several hours. If it develops a disagreeable odor it is 
totally unfit for use. 

HOW TO MAKE HARD WATER SOFT 

Where soft water cannot be obtained, soda, borax or other ingre- 
dients are used in hard water to give it the desirable qualities. Here 
is a mixture which has many uses: Take two pounds of washing 
soda and one pound of lime, and boil for two hours in five gallons of 
water. After it cools and settles pour the clear water off into a jug. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECiPES 89 

A tablespoonful of this mixture in a dishpan of water will help in 
washing dishes, and the same proportion in scrub water or wash 
water will help in the housecleaning and laundry work. 

Borax put into hard water at the rate of a handful to every ten 
( gallons will make the washing easy. 

RATS, AND HOW TO GET RID OF THEM 

Rats may be killed, caught or driven away to get rid of them. A 
convenient way of poisoning them is as follows: Spread some slices 
of bread with butter. Then sprinkle arsenic on it freely, and over 
this put a little sugar. Press the sugar and arsenic well into the 
butter, so they will not fall off. Next cut the slices of bread into 
small squares and drop them into the rat holes where they will not 
endanger the children or the household animals which might eat 
them. Some of the rats will be killed, and others will be driven 
away; but if you use poison get but a little, use it up as fast as pos- 
sible, and keep it away from the children and away from all places 
where food is kept. 

It Is Much Belter to Drive Out Rats than to poison them, for if they 
die between the walls they are almost as hard to dispose of as when 
they are alive. A writer in the Scientific American says: "We 
cleaned our premises of rats by making whitewash yellow with 
copperas and covering the stones in the cellar with it. In every 
crevice or hole in which a rat might tread we put crystals of the 
copperas, and scattered the same in the corners of the floor. The 
result was a perfect stampede of rats and mice. Since that time not 
a footfall of either has been heard about the house. Every spring a 
coat of the yellow wash is given the cellar as a purifier and rat 
exterminator, and no typhoid, dysentery or fever attacks the family. 
Many persons seem to deliberately attract all the rats in the neigh- 
borhood by leaving fruits and vegetables uncovered in the cellar, and 
sometimes even the soap is left open for their regalement. Cover up 
everything eatable in the cellar and pantry and you will soon starve 
them out. These precautions, joined to the services of a good cat, 
will prove as good an exterminator as the chemist can provide. We 
never allow rats to be poisoned in our dwelling, they are so liable to 
die between the walls and produce much annoyance." 

Daub Tar around and in Rat Holes and you will help to drive out 



9 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the pests. They do not like to get their feet daubed with anything 
which is sticky. Chloride of lime, too, will drive them away. Put it 
into their holes where it will absorb moisture and generate chlorine 
gas, which they do not like. 

Rye Meal and Finely-powdered Lime, unslaked, may be mixed dry, 
and small dishes of water set near it in places which they infest. 
The rats will eat it freely, and then seek relief by drinking water, 
when the gas generated by the slaking lime will put an end to them. 

TO REPEL MOSQUITOES AND FLIES 

To repel mosquitoes, flies and similar pests when fishing and 
shooting, mix three ounces of sweet oil and one ounce of carbolic 
acid. Let this be thoroughly applied upon hands and face and all 
exposed parts, carefully avoiding the eyes, once every hour, for the 
first two or three days, when the pests are troublesome. By this 
time the skin is filled with it, and after this its application will be 
necessary only occasionally. 

Another Recipe Equally Effective is six parts of sweet oil, one part 
creosote and one part oil of pennyroyal. Either of these is agreeable 
to use and in no way injurious to the skin. 

SULPHUR FOR CELLAR MOULD 

Some cellars become infested with mould and fungus so that vege- 
tables soon decay if stored there. Take some sulphur or brimstone, 
lay it on a pan of live coals in the middle of the cellar and close the 
doors. In a few hours the mould and fungus will be destroyed, and 
after ventilation the cellar will be sweet and wholesome again. 

TO MAKE NEW ROPE LIMBER 

Considerable difficulty is sometimes experienced in handling new 
rope on account of its stiffness. This is especially the case when it is 
wanted for halters and cattle ties. Every farmer is aware how incon- 
venient a new stiff rope halter is to put on and tie up a horse with, 
and new ropes for tying cattle are frequently unsafe, for the reason 
that they are not pliable enough to knot securely. All this can be 
remedied, and new rope made as limber and soft at once as after a 
year's constant use by simply boiling it for two hours in water. Then 
hang it in a warm room and let it dry out thoroughly. It retains its 
stiffness until dry, when it becomes perfectly pliable. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 91 

A HANDY FIRE ESCAPE 

A good, cheap and portable fire escape can be made of a small rope. 
Double it and make knots about eighteen inches apart from end to 
end. This will form rests in which to put the feet while descending 
from a window if all other escape fails. Attach it to a bedstead, or 
remove two or three bed slats, put them through one end loop, place 
the slats horizontally across the window, throw out the rope and then 
descend. 

TO KEEP SOOT OUT OF CHIMNEYS 

It is not necessary for chimneys to fill with soot or to burn out if 
they are properly built. They should be plastered on the inside from 
bottom to top with a mixture of four parts mortar and one part 
common salt. Soot does not stick to the surface thus formed. 

TO CLEAN WINDOWS IN STOVES 

The mica windows in coal stoves, or isinglass, as it is improperly 
but commonly called, can be cleaned to look almost as good as new 
after it has been disfigured by smoke. Take the pieces, one at a 
time, soak them in vinegar and water and rub them with soft flannel, 
when you will find the appearance very much improved. 

LIQUID STOVE POLISH 

A good liquid stove polish which gives no offensive smell when 
the stove is used, and keeps the iron from rusting, is made as follows: 
Dissolve one ounce of resin in one quart of benzine, and then mix 
four ounces of powdered plumbago with it. To make a smaller 
quantity reduce the ingredients in the same proportion. 

Another Good Liquid Stove Polish is made by mixing with pow- 
dered plumbago enough asphalt varnish to form a thick paste, and 
adding to it enough turpentine or benzine to thin it sufficiently. 

SHINGLES MADE FIREPROOF 

Shingles may be made fireproof and more durable by the follow- 
ing process: Into a large kettle or tub put one barrel of lye from wood 
ashes, or five pounds of concentrated lye, as bought in cans. The 
latter, of course, must be diluted according to the directions which 
come with it. Then add five pounds of white vitriol, five pounds of 



92 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

alum, and as much salt as will dissolve in the mixture. Warm the 
compound and put as many shingles as can be covered at a time in 
it. After they have soaked for perhaps two hours take them out and 
put in others, renewing the mixture when necessary. 

The shingles should be put on the roof in the usual way. After 
they are laid they may be washed or painted with the liquid that is 
left, putting lime enough into it to make whitewash, or ochre, or 
Spanish brown for coloring. This wash may be renewed from time 
to time, and as long as it is kept on, the shingles are fireproof and 
more waterproof than in their natural state: 

TO MAKE WOOD FIREPROOF 

Here is a French invention of a fireproof composition for coating 
wood: Dissolve in cold water as much lye as it will take up, and 
wash or daub with it all boards to be fireproofed. Then dilute the 
same liquid with a little water, and add to it enough finely-pounded 
yellow clay to make it the thickness of common paint. Next stir in 
a small quantity of flour paste. Paint the boards with three coats of 
this mixture, and when dry apply the following composition: Put 
into a pot equal quantities of finely pulverized iron-filings, brick dust 
and ashes. Pour over them thin glue water, slightly warm, and stir 
them well together. Now with this composition give one coat to the 
boards, and after drying, a second one. This preparation, if followed 
carefully, will resist fire for several hours and indeed will prevent the 
wood from ever bursting into flames, so that no fire can spread 
where it is used. It is found that a quantity made by using twenty 
pounds of clay, a pound and a half of flour for making the paste, and 
one pound of lye is enough to prepare a surface one hundred feet 
square. 

TO PRESERVE WOOD FROM DECAY 

The cheapest, easiest and best method of preserving wood from 
decay is to saturate it with crude petroleum. Seasoned pine is made 
almost waterproof by this simple material, which should be applied 
with a brush until the wood will soak up no more. Crude petroleum 
is very cheap, but of course inflammable, and care should be taken to 
avoid accident by fire until it is dry. Creosote is likewise effective for 
the same purpose. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 93 

Fence posts, telegraph poles and other timber to be placed in the 
ground may be made much more durable by first charring the wood 
over a hot fire, and then coating it with coal tar. Fence posts last 
better, too, if placed in the round with the butt end of the timber 
upward, because the water does not escape so easily against the 
natural course of the sap. 

WALNUT STAIN FOR WOODWORK 

A new process by which ordinary wood has imparted to it the 
appearance of walnut, suitable for office, steamboat and other cabinet 
work, has been but recently developed. Birch, beech, alder, or 
similar woods, are first thoroughly dried and warmed and then 
coated once or twice with a liquid composed of one part (by weight) of 
extract of walnut peel dissolved in six parts of soft water by heating 
it to boiling, and stirring. The wood thus treated is, when half dry, 
brushed with a solution of one part (by weight) of bichromate of pot- 
ash in five parts of boiling water, and, after drying thoroughly, is 
rubbed and polished. 

To Stain Wood Dark Mahogany, Cherry or Rosewood Color, any one 
of the following recipes will be of service: Boil one-half pound 
of logwood in three pints of water and add one-half ounce salts of 
tartar. Another recipe: Boil one-half pound madder and one-fourth 
pound fustic in one gallon of water. Another recipe: Boil one 
pound of Brazil wood and one ounce of washing soda in one gallon 
of water. Apply it, and then brush over it before d"y a solution of 
two ounces of alum in one quart of water. With any of these the 
wood, if dry, may be stained with the liquid cold, but the coloring 
will be accomplished far more quickly and satisfactorily if the liquids 
are applied hot. 

FURNITURE POLISH 

A good and simple furniture polish consists of a little castile soap, 
scraped into a pint of warm water. Add three tablespoonfuls of 
sweet oil, heat and apply while hot. 

An Excellent Furniture Polish is made with one pint of linseed oil 
and half a gill of alcohol, stirred well together and applied to the fur- 
niture with a linen rag. After this rub dry with a soft cotton cloth; 
and finish by rubbing with an old piece of silk, when a most beautiful 
gloss on the furniture will be the result. 



94 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

TO TAKE OLD VARNISH FROM FURNITURE 

Put equal parts of strong alcohol and good oil of turpentine into 
a bottle, then set the bottle into hot water until the mixture becomes 
thoroughly heated. Cover the woodwork with this hot liquid, and all 
the old varnish will dissolve so that it will scrape off without difficulty. 
In a little while the woodwork will be entirely clean and smooth. In 
rejuvenating old furniture a satisfactory job never can be done by 
putting on a new coat of varnish without first removing the old coat. 

TO REMOVE STAINS FROM FURNITURE 

White stains on furniture may be removed by rubbing them with 
hot milk and turpentine. They can be removed with kerosene when 
not of long standing, but the hot milk and turpentine is better. For 
dark stains use a strong solution of oxalic acid. Purchase the 
crystals, put them into a bottle, fill it up with water and keep it on a 
high shelf where the children cannot get at it. It is good to use in 
removing spots of iron rust or of ink from white goods, and a weak 
solution may be used on the hands when they are badly stained from 
dirty work. The hands must then be rinsed carefully and thor- 
oughly, for oxalic acid is poison. 

SAVING BROKEN FURNITURE 

Many articles of furniture are broken up and destroyed because 
some parts of them needed mending and were neglected. Every 
piece that has become loosened from an article of furniture, or every 
part that is broken, should be saved. Bring them out some day when 
you have a little spare time and provide yourself with a hammer, 
small nails and a bottle of prepared glue. You will be surprised to 
find that many articles can be made to do good service, and look as 
well as new after they are repaired. 

TO HARDEN LAMP CHIMNEYS 

Here is a method which will prevent lamp chimneys from cracking 
by heat. The treatment will not only render lamp chimneys, 
tumblers and like articles more durable, but may be applied with 
advantage to crockery, stoneware, porcelain, etc. The chimneys, 
tumblers, etc., are put into a pot filled with cold water, to which 
some common table salt has been added. The water is well boiled 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 9S 

over a fire and then allowed to cool slowly. When the articles are 
taken out and washed they will be found to resist afterward any 
sudden changes of temperature. 

PICTURES TRANSFERRED TO GLASS 

To transfer drawings or engravings to a varnished surface of 
glass, wood or pottery, spread a thin coat of copal varnish evenly 
over the surface to be ornamented, and when nearly dried apply the 
engraving with its face to the varnish and carefully press it to exclude 
all air bubbles. When the varnish is dry the back of the paper 
should be moistened thoroughly with a sponge dipped in warm water, 
when it can be carefully rubbed off, leaving all the lines of the print 
upon the varnished surface. 

SUBSTITUTE FOR GROUND GLASS WINDOWS 

Put a piece of putty in muslin, twist the fabric tight and tie it into 
the shape of a pad; clean the glass well first and then apply the putty 
by dabbing it equally all over the glass. The putty will exude suffi- 
ciently through the muslin to render it opaque. Let it dry hard and 
then varnish. If a pattern is required, cut it on paper as a stencil 
plate, and fix it on the glass before applying the putty, then proceed 
as above; remove the stencil when finished. If there should be any 
objection to the existence of the clear spaces cover with slightly 
opaque varnish. 

TO MAKE HOLES IN PLATE GLASS 

It is not difficult to make a hole in plate glass. Make a circle of 
clay or cement rather smaller than the intended hole; pour some 
kerosene into the cell thus made, ignite it, place the plate upon a 
moderately hard support, and with a stick, rather smaller than the 
hole required, and a hammer, strike a rather smart blow. This will 
leave a rough-edged hole, which may be smoothed with a file. Cold 
water is said to answer even better than a blow. 

TO MAKE HOLES IN HARD STEEL 

Holes in hard steel may be made with nitric acid. To apply it 
cover the steel plate at the place where you wish the hole with a 



96 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

thick layer of melted wax; when cold make a hole in the wax of the 
size you want the hole in the plate, then put on one or two drops of 
strong nitric acid, leave it on for some time, wash off with water, and 
if not eaten through apply other drops of the same liquid and 
continue this until the plate is perforated. 

TO FASTEN IRON IN STONEWORK 

Melted sulphur is an excellent material with which to fasten iron 
rods in holes sunk in stonework. One objection is that sulphur is 
brittle and readily broken. It may become cracked by sudden 
changes of temperature. This may be avoided in a measure by 
mixing fine sand or iron-filings in the melted sulphur before pouring 
it in to hold the ironwork. 

TO HARDEN STEEL 

To harden steel, take two teaspoonfuls of water, one-half table- 
spoonful of flour and one of salt. Coat the steel with the paste by 
immersing it in the composition, after which heat it to a cherry red 
and plunge it into soft water. If properly done the steel will come 
out with a beautiful white surface. Stub's files are said to be 
hardened in this manner. 

CLEANING TARNISHED BRASS 

The method of cleaning brass used in the United States arsenals 
is as follows: Make a mixture of one part common nitric acid and 
one-half part sulphuric acid in a stone jar, having also ready a pail of 
fresh water and a box of sawdust. The articles to be treated are 
dipped into the acid, then thrown into the water, and finally rubbed 
with sawdust. This immediately changes them into a brilliant color. 
If the brass has become greasy it is first dipped into a strong solution 
of potash and soda in warm water. This cuts the grease so that the 
acid has power to act. 

TO MAKE A BLACK FINISH ON BRASS 

The process used on surveyors' and engineers' instruments to give 
brass a dark color is as follows: Clean the brass, and having 
dissolved in two pints of hydrochloric acid five ounces of arsenious 
acid and seven ounces of sulphate of iron, dip the brass in this liquid 



MLSCELLANEOUS RECIPES 97 

until properly colored, then wash well in water and lacquer with a 
solution of bleached shellac in alcohol while the brass is quite warm. 

MENDING PLASTER CASTS 

Plaster casts may be mended by using a cement made by dis- 
solving small portions of celluloid in ether. No more of the cement 
should be made than is required for use, as it hardens almost imme- 
diately by the evaporation of the ether. 

HOW TO FILL CRACKS IN PLASTER 

For filling cracks in plaster mix plaster of Paris with vinegar until 
it forms a paste of putty-like consistency, and push this into the cracks 
with an old case-knife. Plaster of Paris will not become hard for at 
least half an hour if mixed with vinegar, and it hardens almost 
immediately in water. 

HOW TO MEND A PAPER PAIL 

A paper pail or tub may be mended by pasting a piece of cloth 
over the hole with putty, and letting it harden. 

TO CARE FOR AN UMBRELLA 

The best way to dry an umbrella, and so preserve it, is to leave it 
spread on the piazza or in the hall. When there is not enough room 
to allow that, reverse the usual method and stand the umbrella in the 
corner with the handle down. The rain drips quicker off the points. 
The ordinary way collects all the water at one place, where the cloth 
dries slowly and, therefore, rots the quicker. Never put several wet 
umbrellas together in an umbrella stand. 

TO REMOVE STAINS FROM MARBLE 

To remove stains from marble, cover the soiled part with a paste 
of quicklime, moistened with water in which sal soda has been 
dissolved. Let this remain for several hours. Then wash the parts 
thoroughly and polish if necessary. 

TO FILL CRACKS IN A WOODEN FLOOR 

It is a most novel idea to save all the letters that come to the 
house and all envelopes and letter paper, even that used by the 



98 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

children at school. A big bag might be kept hanging in a convenient 
place and the letter paper should be torn into bits and deposited 
therein. When a floor is to be painted, papier-mache is made with 
which to fill the cracks. The bits of paper are cooked in a pot and a 
handful of gum arabic added to every quart of the paper and water; 
then the mixture is allowed to simmer until it becomes a thick cream. 
This is put into the cracks in the floor while boiling hot, and when 
cold it is as hard as the flooring. When the floor is painted it is 
almost impossible to tell where the cracks were. 

TO KEEP WASTE WATER PIPES CLEAN 

Many waste pipes from the kitchen sink, the bath-tub or the wash 
basin fill up so gradually that we find them clogged before we dream 
of such a thing. Very often this means sending for the plumber and 
paying the bills, and perhaps having to wait for him to come. 
A plumber who has been called to look after many such cases gave 
this bit of instruction, though he frankly confessed that if he had not 
gone out of the business he would not tell the secret. He said: 
"Just before retiring at night pour into the clogged pipe enough 
liquid soda-lye to fill the trap (the bent part of the pipe, just below 
the outlet). During the night the lye will convert all the grease into 
soft soap, and in the morning a good flushing with warm water will 
leave the pipes as clean as new." 

WATERPROOF CANVAS FOR TARPAULINS 

To make waterproof canvas for wagon tops, hay covers, etc., take 
one pound litharge, one pound umber and nine and one-half gallons 
of linseed oil boiled together for twenty-four hours. For smaller 
quantities observe same proportions. This may be colored with any 
paint if desired and should be applied with a brush the same as paint. 

TO CLEAN A DIRTY BARREL 

To clean a barrel thoroughly, fill it half full of water, then pour in 
a solution of two pounds of sal soda in a gallon of hot water. Shake 
the barrel so that the liquids will mix thoroughly and then fill it to 
the top with clean water and allow it to remain over nighf. Empty 
out the liquid, rinse thoroughly, and after a few hours it will be 
ready to use for cider or any such purpose. 



MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES 99 

TO KEEP WOOD FROM SPLITTING 

Logs and planks split at the ends when the rest of the piece is in 
good condition. This is because the exposed surface dries faster 
than the inside, and in shrinking cannot contract sufficiently. This 
may be prevented by mixing muriatic acid and lime, and applying it 
like whitewash to the ends of the logs. The chemical combination 
formed absorbs moisture from the air and so prevents the splitting. 

BLACK HARNESS POLISH 

A good harness polish easily made at home may be prepared as 
follows: Take one part of indigo or lamp black, two parts each of soft 
soap and mutton suet, and six parts each of beeswax and powdered 
sugar. If these parts be ounces you will have a little more than a 
pound of polish. Dissolve the soap in a quarter of a pint of water. 
Then add the other ingredients, and after melting and mixing them 
all together add a gill of turpentine. This may be put on the harness 
with a sponge and polished with a brush. 

CLOTH MADE WATERPROOF 

Cloth may be made waterproof by soaking in a tub of the follow- 
ing mixture: Dissolve ten ounces of sugar of lead in one bucket of 
water, and the same amount of powdered alum in another. Pour the 
two into one tub and let the cloth soak in it and then dry without 
wringing. 

CLOTH MADE FIREPROOF 

Cloth may be made virtually fireproof by the use of tungstate of 
soda. If the clothing is to be starched, starch it with a mixture of 
four parts starch and one part tungstate, ironing it as usual. For 
unstarched clothing dip the goods into a solution of one-half pound 
of tungstate in a gallon of soft water. Be sure to have the soaking 
complete, and, to be most effective, dry and dip a second time. 

MAKING CURTAINS FIREPROOF 

To render curtains and other like textile fabrics non-inflammable 
dip them into a solution of about twenty per cent strength of ammonia 
sulphate and dry them. The fabrics may be starched and ironed, or 
finished in the usual way. 



CHAPTER VI 
GENERAL HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 

Value of System in liousecleaning — Beds and Their Care — Windows, Doors 
and Woodwork — Moths, Cockroaches and Other Insects — Carpet, Oil- 
cloth and Rug Suggestions — The Care of Wall Paper — Washday Wisdom 
— How to Wash Flannels without Shrinking Them — Successful Starch- 
ing and Ironing — Removing Stains from Fabrics — The Care of Fine 
Laces — Practical Advice from Experienced Counselors. 

There is no one so wise as to know everything about even t the 
simplest subject of general interest. And when we come to some- 
thing as varied in its conditions and as wide in its scope as the care 
of a household, true it is that in a multitude of counselors there is 
wisdom. Housekeeping is an honored and an honorable occupation. 
In its different forms it may be termed with truth a science, an art, a 
profession or a trade. Here in the succeeding pages have been 
gathered the results of years of experience of many housekeepers 
who take pride in their craft, and have learned the best, the simplest 
and the most effective ways of doing the thousand things that have 
to be done in every household in the course of the year. 

VALUE OF SYSTEM IN HOUSECLEANING 

No matter how neat the housekeeper is, nor how well she looks 
after every part of the house, a thorough cleaning is necessary every 
spring and fall, and she will do well to learn the best and easiest 
method of doing the work. System, method and planning will help 
her wonderfully. 

The attic, closets, cupboards, trunks and drawers may be put in 
order before the general work begins. If there are any small holes 
in the plastering of the closets, mix a little plaster of Paris with 
enough water to make a stiff dough and press it into the cracks with 
a putty knife. Mix just what you will use at one time, for it will 
harden in a little while and is then worthless. All winter clothing 
can be stored away in boxes or bags for the summer. Wash the 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 101 

floors and woodwork with a strong solution of borax and water to 
remove any moth eggs that have been deposited there and make the 
air of the closets pure and wholesome. This preparatory work can 
be done whenever you have a few leisure hours, and will be a great 
help when you begin the hard work. 

Every Bed Should Be Taken Down and the slats and all inner 
portions thoroughly dusted and washed. If you have been troubled 
with bedbugs heretofore, mix one-half pint alcohol, one-half pint 
turpentine, and one ounce corrosive sublimate, and when the latter 
has dissolved pour a little of the mixture in a machine oil-can and 
apply it to the parts where the bugs are usually found. The corrosive 
sublimate is a deadly poison, and one must be careful that it is kept 
where the children cannot reach it. Strong alum water is also 
recommended for bedbugs, and is much safer to use, but not so 
effective. 

Never Use Straw under Carpets as the dirt sifts through it and 
cannot be swept out, so accumulates from week to week. If papers 
are used, a great deal of dirt is removed in the daily sweeping. 
When the carpet and papers are taken up sprinkle the floor with 
moist earth and you can sweep it without raising much dust. 

The Best Use for Matting that is almost worn out is to put it 
under a carpet. Matting is an excellent floor covering for summer. 
It is easily cleaned, wears well, and is cool. When you put down a 
new piece of matting give it two coats of varnish, which will make it 
more durable. When it becomes soiled warm a bucketful of water, 
dissolve a little borax in it and a very little soap. Dip a soft cloth in 
the water and wipe the matting with it, and it will look clean and 
fresh again. The borax makes it easy to clean and does not injure 
the colors or material. 

Clean the Leather Seats of Chairs with a sponge dipped in the 
white of an egg. The appearance of old furniture is wonderfully 
improved by cleaning the woodwork with hot suds. Sandpaper any 
rough places, and apply a coat of good varnish. Clean gilded picture 
frames by rubbing them with a sponge wrung from alcohol. 

AN EASY WAY TO CLEAN WINDOWS 

Take powdered whiting and wet to a paste with alcohol; rub it 
over the glass and leave it to dry; then take a chamois skin and rub 



io2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

it off. In this way there are no slops, no rags and no lint to fuss 
with, but with half the labor the result is bright, shining, lintless 
glass. 

When You Wash Windows use a little borax or ammonia dissolved 
in warm water. After you have washed the windows, polish them 
with a dry chamois skin, which leaves no lint as a cloth does. 

To Open Windows Easily, brush over the edge of the frames with 
ordinary black lead, when they will slide without difficulty. 

PAINT SPOTS AND FINGER MARKS-TO REMOVE THEM 

Remove paint spots from windows as follows: Dissolve one ounce 
of sal soda in one pint of soft water, and use it hot on the spots with a 
piece of flannel, sponge or stick, so as not to burn the fingers. Wash 
off with hot water as soon as the paint spots are softened. 

The same mixture will clean finger marks and other soiled spots 
from doors or other painted woodwork. 

TO RENEW FADED GREEN BLINDS 

Faded green blinds, if not too far gone, may be made to look 
almost as good as new by brushing a little linseed oil over them. 
After this they have a fine appearance. 

CLEANING MARBLE 

Ink Spots May Be Removed from Marble by first washing with 
pure water and then with a weak solution of oxalic acid. If the 
luster of the stone becomes dimmed by this acid it may be restored 
by rubbing it with a linen cloth, dipped alternately in water and in 
very finely powdered soft white marble. 

Match Stains May Be Removed from Marble by sulphide of carbon. 

TO CLEAN OIL PAINTINGS 

Varnish and dirt maybe removed from an oil painting by washing 
over it with a weak solution of carbonate of ammonia, wiping it off 
with a soft sponge and a little warm water as soon as the dirt is 
cleared away. If allowed to remain too long it will injure the oil 
colors. Afterward apply a little nut oil (warmed), rub the picture 
gently with it and let it dry. This will make it look as bright as when 
it came from the artist. If the canvas is injured by damp, mildew or 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 103 

decay, the first thing to be done is to stretch it gently and line it with 
new canvas. 

TO CLEAN SPOTTED OR OLD BOOKS 

Ink Stains or Writing May Be Taken out of Books by various acids 
but it is important to select one that does not injure the paper 
at the same time. Muriatic acid, diluted in five or six times its own 
quantity of water, may be applied to the ink spot with a soft camel's 
hair brush, and after a minute or two if washed off with clean water it 
will take the ink stains with it. A solution of oxalic acid, citric acid 
and tartaric acid in equal parts, well diluted with water, may be used 
on books without risk of injury to either paper or print. These acids 
take out writing ink but do not affect the printing ink. 

To Remove Yellow Stains from Old Books and engravings which 
have become "foxed," as the technicality has it, apply a solution of 
hydrochloride of soda. 

CARE OF THE ICE CHEST 

Keep the ice chest clean by washing with soda. Do not let the 
waste pipe clog, and never connect it with the drainage of , the house, 
or the worst results may ensue. Keep the butter and milk in a sep- 
arate compartment. 

Refrigerators need careful attention in winter, that they may be 
in proper condition for summer use. Scrub and scald them at inter- 
vals and keep pieces of fresh charcoal in each compartment. 

COAL OIL FOR CLEANSING 

A small amount of coal oil will cleanse the wringer nicely, and also 
the wash basin. 

TO CLEAN PAINTED WOODWORK 

You will doubtless have painted woodwork to clean during the 
spring housecleaning. Dissolve a teaspoonful of borax in a gallon 
of warm water, shave a little good soap fine and put it in. Dip a soft 
rag in the suds, wash the paint quickly and wipe dry. The borax 
cleanses the paint without injuring it in the least, which cannot be 
said of many preparations that are sold for that purpose, 



io 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

TO CLEAR OUT COCKROACHES 

Sprinkle borax the last thing at night in the places where cock- 
roaches and water-bugs are troublesome, stuffing it into the cracks 
where they hide. Repeat this two or three nights in succession and 
you will find the pests leaving your home. 

HOT ALUM WATER FOR INSECTS 

Hot alum water will destroy ants, cockroaches and all bugs which 
infest houses. 

TO CLEAN CARPETS ON THE FLOOR 

While carpets, of course, must be taken up regularly for thorough 
cleaning and to clean the floors under them, you can get very good 
results in another way between times. Put a tablespoonful of 
ammonia in a gallon of moderately warm water and go all over the 
carpet with a sponge or soft broom, dipped in the mixture. You will 
be surprised to see what an improvement you will make by a little 
labor and expense. 

MOTHS, AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM 

Moths Are Hard io Drive Out when once they have begun to 
infest a house, either in closets or carpets, but they can be prevented 
and they can be exterminated. Before putting the carpet down take 
a can of turpentine and wet the floor around the edge of the room 
with a paint brush, quite freely. It kills the moths and the eggs that 
may be under the edge of the baseboard. 

Damp Salt Sprinkled over the Carpet while sweeping is hard on 
the moths, and in addition it makes for cleanliness, brightens the 
carpet and keeps down the dust. 

Moths May Be Destroyed in Carpets where they have already got 
a hold. Lay a coarse towel which has been wrung out of clear water 
over the place where they are suspected, then take a large and 
unbroken piece of thick wrapping paper and lay it over the wet 
towel. Then iron with a hot iron. If thoroughly done the heat ami 
steam kill the moths and their eggs. This may be repeated at inter- 
vals for additional safety. It does not injure the carpet and does not 
require much pressure, for it is the heat and steam that do the work. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 105 

Benzine Is Considered Absolutely Fatal to Moths and their eggs 
and it may be sprinkled on upholstered furniture where they have 
made their way. If this is done, however, it must be remembered 
that the vapor is inflammable, and no fire nor lamp must be about 
until it is entirely evaporated and the room has been ventilated. 

HOW TO TAKE INK STAINS OUT OF CARPET 

If you are so unfortunate as to spill ink on the carpet, take up as 
much as you can with a sponge. Of course this is done before it has 
time to dry. Wash the place with a cloth dipped in clear water. 

OILCLOTH AND RUG SUGGESTIONS 

When a heavy floor oilcloth becomes so worn that it looks too 
shabby for longer use right side up, turn it over and give it a coat of 
paint followed by one of varnish, and then use it to cover a pantry 
or hallway floor. It will look better and be far easier cleaned than 
the ordinary wood floor. 

Another place to use it is as a border around the edge of a room 
where a rug is to be used in the center. The rug is the ideal, as well 
as the fashionable floor covering. 

These floor oilcloths nearly always have a brown back, and a 
color can be put on them which will closely resemble walnut wood 
and make a very handsome floor border which will last for many 
years. 

Comparatively few housekeepers seem to know what a labor- 
saving article oilcloth is when properly used. It is well to put oilcloth 
around the corner where the kitchen table stands, like a wainscoting. 
Let it reach from the baseboard to a moulding placed about four f :et 
above. No matter what gets spattered on the wall it is easily wiped 
off, and looks fresh and clean. Then in the pantry, where pans and 
all sorts of things hang against the wall, it saves the dingy-looking 
streaks which will come even on the plaster which has been painted. 

Some of the marbled oilcloths are pretty enough to add to the 
beauty of a kitchen or bathroom if used as a wainscoting for the 
entire room, and only those who have tried it know how much it 
sav r es in the way of work. 



io6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

RUGS MADE FROM OLD INGRAIN CARPETS 

Ingrain carpet, which is too badly worn for any further use, can be 
used as material for a rug which will last for a lifetime and be hand- 
some enough for use in any room. It is not a cheap rug in any sense, 
for it costs as much to get it woven as an ordinary rug costs, but it is 
far better when done than any new rug which costs the same sum. 
A rug three yards square costs $9 for the weaving, but no $9 rug is 
to be compared with it either for beauty of texture or durability. 
The weaver takes the carpet as it comes from the floor and returns 
the rug ready to put in its place. 

DOUBLE SERVICE FOR STAIR CARPETS 

If a new stair carpet is to be bought this spring, be sure that the 
amount bought is a little more than the exact length actually needed; 
then let the extra length go under the carpet on either the upper or 
lower floor. When the carpet is taken up to clean reverse the order, 
and the part of the carpet that came on top of the steps and got the 
wear will be moved forward and come between the steps. In this 
way the term of service in which the carpet will look fresh and good 
is doubled, and the price of a new carpet saved to be used in some 
other place or way. 

HOW TO CLEAN STRAW MATTING 

Cleaning straw matting with bran water gives very fine results. 
Boil three pints of bran in two quarts of water, then, when it becomes 
cold, use it to wash the matting. This is best done on a sunshiny day 
and out of doors, then the matting need not be disturbed until per- 
fectly dry. 

TO PRESERVE AND FRESHEN OILCLOTH 

Cut half an ounce of beeswax into bits, put it into a saucer, cover 
it with turpentine and place it in the oven, where it remains until the 
wax is melted. Wash the oilcloth with warm milk and water, using' 
a flannel cloth, and then go over it with flannel dipped into the prep- 
aration of wax and turpentine, and rub it well with a dry cloth. This 
gives a nice polish and forms a coating over the oilcloth that tends to 
preserve it. The beeswax should be applied every time the oilcloth 
is washed, but this need not be so frequently under this treatment as 



household recipes 107 

without it. Usually we wash oilcloth when it really does not need it, 
simply because it looks dull and dirty. The wax and turpentine pro- 
duces a polish that lasts quite a long time, and the oilcloth looks 
clean. Sweep oilcloth with an old woolen cloth tied on the broom, 
and this cleans it nicely. 

I To Keep Your Linoleum Bright, wash it regularly every two or three 
weeks with a mixture of equal parts of milk and water. After three 
or four months the linoleum should be rubbed with a weak solution 
of yellow wax turpentine. Thus treated it is said to keep well, and 
look as bright as when new. 

TO MAKE OILCLOTH WEAR WELL 

It is said that if sawdust is spread evenly over the floor before a 
new oilcloth is laid the durability of the latter will be increased and 
sound deadened as well. Most old housekeepers know it to be a 
good plan to lay a new oilcloth right over an old one unless there are 
seriously uneven holes and lumps in the old one. 

HOW TO PAPER A ROOM 

It is not difficult to paper the walls of a house yourself if you will 
take pains when you are doing the work. Trim the edge of the 
paper carefully, and be sure to match the pattern so it will join 
properly as you cut off the lengths from the roll. The paste should 
be made the day before it is wanted, so it will be cold when time to 
use it. A gallon will be enough for a room twelve feet square. Mix 
one pound of flour into a thin dough, mixing it with more water and 
pressing out all the lumps. Then pour this thin batter into a gallon 
of boiling water and keep stirring while it comes to a boil again. Let 
it stand to cool over night, and then if there are lumps in it press 
it through cheese-cloth to strain it. 

Whitewashed Walls Should Be Sized with a mixture of one pound 
of alum to two gallons of water. Let the walls dry before beginning 
to paper. It is unsafe to attempt papering over walls already 
papered. You must scrape off the old paper and start fresh or you 
will find your work an entire failure. When you are papering have a 
towel over your arm and press out from under the paper all the air 
bubbles or puffs, so there will be no wrinkles when it is dry. 



io8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

WALL PAPER CLEANED WITH BREAD 

Wall paper may be cleaned so as to look almost like new by 
rubbing it with bread about two days old. Brush the dust off the 
paper with a feather duster, or blow it off with a strong bellows. 
Then take a smooth piece of the loaf, which has been cut into eight 
portions. Begin at the top of the room, holding the crust in the hand 
and wiping the length of your arm till the upper part of the room is 
cleaned all around. Then clean the second circuit with a similar 
sweeping stroke downward, and continue until you reach the floor. 
Do not rub the paper too hard nor attempt cleaning it by stroking 
crosswise or horizontally. The dirty part of the bread must be con- 
tinually cut away. 

GREASE SPOTS TAKEN FROM WALL PAPER 

Grease spots and marks where people have rested their hands or 
their heads can be taken from wall paper by mixing pipe clay or 
powdered chalk with water to the consistency of cream, laying it on 
the spot and letting it dry till the following day, when it may be 
brushed away, taking the grease with it. 

TO MAKE BROOMS LAST LONGER 

The amount expended for brooms during the year is a consider- 
able one, and yet very few housewives take any care of them. The 
small broom holders that are fastened to the door casing are con- 
venient places for keeping them, or if you do not have these, fasten 
a large screw-eye in the end of the handle and hang it up on a nail. 
After the weekly sweeping is done prepare a hot suds and let the 
broom soak in it two or three minutes, then rinse in clear, hot water, 
and hang it up to dry. This treatment makes the straws tough and 
pliable, greatly lengthening their durability. 

USE FOR A CHICKEN WING 

A good soft chicken wing is just the thing for brushing down 
stairs; it finds all the corners and leaves no scratches. 

THE BEST POLISHING CLOTH 

Take old pieces of cotton or linen too much worn for further use, 
put them in a saucepan and pour over a quart of milk to which two 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 109 

ounces of powdered borax and one of ammonia are added; set over 
the fire and let boil fifteen or twenty minutes. Take up, rinsing 
quickly in cold water, and dry before the fire or in a close room. Fold 
these cloths away in a drawer or box, and use to polish silverware, 
tin or bronze. The combination of milk, ammonia and borax will 
produce a brilliant polish and make old ware rubbed with it as bright 
as if new. 

HOW TO POLISH TARNISHED BRASS 

Tarnished brass may be greatly benefited if rubbed with a cut 
lemon dipped in salt. It should afterward be washed in warm water, 
dried, and polished with leather. 

TO POLISH GLASS 

For polishing glass nicely use three tablespoonfuls of kerosene in 
a pint of water. Put kerosene oil in the water when washing mirrors 
and windows and then polish with newspaper. 

TO REMOVE FINGER MARKS FROM PAINT 

Chalk may be used to remove finger marks from paint. Sprinkle 
the chalk on a flannel cloth, rub the spot briskly for a minute or two 
and it is gone. 

A HANDY STOVE POLISHER 

For polishing the stove after blacking use' a piece of sheepskin 
with the wool on, fastened on the front of a mitten. It saves the 
hand and puts a good polish on the stove. 

HOW TO POLISH THE STEEL TRIMMINGS ON STOVES 

Fine emery powder and oil is the nicest thing in the world for 
cleaning the steel on the range or heating stove. It should be applied 
with a soft rag, and rubbed in well, then rubbed again with chamois 
skin or other soft leather. Save all your worn gloves for such pur- 
poses. 

A PRACTICAL STOVE POLISH 

When putting away stoves and cleaning up the grates for summer, 
get a pint of asphaltum and mix it thoroughly with a gill of turpen- 
tine and apply it to the iron with a paint brush. The result will be a 



no PRACTICAL RECIPES 

shining surface that will look like new, and will last as long as the 
finish that was on the iron when bought. This is a fine blacking for 
stoves in use as well as when idle, and is particularly fine for pipes or 
any exposed iron surface. 

, GLASS BOTTLES MADE CLEAN 

A Good Way to Clean Glass Bottles that have had medicines in 
them is to put ashes in them, put them in cold water and heat the 
water gradually till it boils. After boiling them an hour let them 
remain until it is cold. Wash them in soap suds and rinse them till 
clean in clear water. 

To Clean Bottles with Small Necks, chop up a potato very fine, 
put it in the bottle with some warm water and shake it rapidly until 
clean. Some rice and warm water put in a bottle will serve just as 
well, and either of these plans is better than to use shot, which may 
break the bottle or leave a coating of lead inside. 

WASHING FLANNELS WITHOUT SHRINKING THEM 

As one wash is sufficient to ruin flannels, unless the work is done 
in a proper manner, particular attention should be given their first 
bath. If this is successful they will not be apt to shrink so much later 
on. The secret of washing flannels is to have the changes of water 
of the same temperature and never to rub soap or anything directly 
on the garment. The temperature should be kept the same through- 
out the entire process, as sudden changes from hot to cold will shrink 
any woolen fabric. Flannels should have a clean suds prepared 
especially for them, and should be well shaken before being sub- 
merged in water to free them from lint and dust, and the water must 
be warm but not boiling, as it shrinks flannel to scald it. Into a 
quarter of a tubful of lukewarm water stir two tablespoonfuls of some 
good washing powder, and stir to a strong lather in the water before 
the flannel is put in. Lay the flannels in the suds, and cleanse by 
lifting up and down and rubbing with the hands. From this water 
lay them in a second prepared exactly like the first and of the same 
temperature. Rinse well in this and lay them in clear, warm water. 
Wring through clothes wringer, pull and shake well and dry in warm 
temperature. While drying shake, stretch and turn them several 
times, and they will keep soft without shrinking. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES tit 

If it can be done, press before perfectly dry, but after they are dry 
a damp cloth should be placed between the iron and the garment. It 
is said that a handful of flour boiled in a quart of water and mixed 
with the warm suds in which red flannels are washed will set the 
colors and keep them from running. Blankets are washed in the 
same way, only, of course, they are not ironed, but look better if they 
are folded smoothly when thoroughly dry and placed under a heavy 
weight for several days. The same process, using a lighter suds, will 
restore almost any woolen gown, white or colored. Flannel waists 
may be washed without ripping, though they are easier ironed if the 
gathered portions are ripped out and sewed in place again after 
ironing. All work of this kind must be done rapidly, for the chief 
point in washing flannels is not to let them lie in the water a moment 
longer than necessary. 

Washing Flannels— Another Recipe. — Have a tub half full of water 
that is more than warm, but not very hot, and make a strong 
suds with laundry soap of the best quality. Add a tablespoonful of 
powdered borax. Shake the flannels thoroughly, then squeeze them 
with the hands, sop them up and down, and if necessary rub the spots 
between the hands. Do not rub soap on the flannels on a board. 
Wring from the first suds and put into another of the same tempera- 
ture; rinse through water that does not contain soap; wring dry, 
shake vigorously and dry quickly. Iron before they are quite dry 
with a moderately hot iron, then press well. Do not use borax for 
colored flannels. 

WOOLEN GOODS— TO SHRINK PROPERLY 

"The old-fashioned way of shrinking woolen cloth," says a skilled 
tailor, "was to wet it with a sponge, not dripping wet, yet wet 
enough to moisten the goods well, rub thoroughly, fold and lay away 
for two hours, after which the cloth was hung up to dry. That 
method is all right, but I prefer the one I now always employ. I take 
a cloth just half the size of the one I desire to shrink and wet it 
thoroughly; I place this over the woolen piece, folding the wet cloth 
up in it and lay away for two hours, during which the moisture 
will spread to every fiber. Then I unfold and separate the cloths and 
spread the woolen piece out to dry. 

"One thing all housekeepers do not know is that flannels never 



in PRACTICAL RECIPES 

should be washed in either hot or cold water. Tepid water is the 
thing to use invariably — it comes the nearest to the temperature of the 
wool when it is on the sheep's back. I use water at about ioo degrees, 
and find it is the best for the preservation of the size of flannels — 
although flannels will continue to shrink until they all but dis- 
appear." 

BLEACHING FLANNELS WITH SULPHUR 

To bleach flannels wet them and hang them on a stick over the top 
of a barrel. In the bottom of the barrel put an old pan with some 
burning coals in it and sprinkle on the coals some broken pieces of 
brimstone. Cover the whole thing with a piece of carpet or an old 
comfort to retain the smoke. 

The Fumes of a Lighted Natch of the old-fashioned sulphur vari- 
ety will bleach out the remnants of stains in many instances. 

HOW TO WASH THE BABY'S UNDERWEAR 

The baby's underwear should be of flannel, as soft and fine as the 
purse can buy, and kept in the best possible condition by washing it 
properly. A careless laundress can ruin the best woolen garments in 
two or three washings, making them so shrunken and rough that they 
irritate the tender flesh almost beyond endurance. The following 
method has been used for years with unvarying success, the little 
garments retaining their soft, fleecy look until entirely worn out. 

Use water that is as hot as you can bear your hand in comfortably, 
for flannel cannot be boiled, and hot water cleanses and purifies it. 
Dissolve a little borax in it and add enough soap to make a strong 
suds; wash the flannel through two waters prepared in this way — 
plunging up and down and rubbing gently between the hands. Soap 
should never be rubbed upon flannels, and rough usage thickens 
the texture. Rinse through clean water of the same temperature as 
that used for washing, and pass them through a rubber wringer. 
Then, just before hanging them out, pull and stretch every piece in 
shape, for if this is neglected the tiny wool fibers interlace, causing them 
to become hard and shrunken. Place them smoothly on the line in 
the sunshine where a gentle breeze will blow through them. Every 
part of the work should be done as speedily as possible. 






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HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 113 

FLANNELS AND HOW TO IRON THEM 

Most flannels are the better for not being ironed, but in some cases 
it is necessary to do so. Spread them on an ironing-board, cover 
with a slightly damped cloth and iron over this, pressing down 
heavily. The iron must not be too hot. 

HOW TO WASH TOWELS EASILY 

It is well to keep on hand a strong emulsion of soap and kerosene 
for the purpose of washing towels. A certain amount is put into a 
large pan containing cold water and set on the stove. The towels are 
then put in and stirred about occasionally until they have boiled 
several minutes, then they are rinsed in two waters and spread on the 
grass. 

AVOID THE ROLLER TOWEL 

It is never a good plan to buy fringed table linen or towels for 
everyday use. Purchase good crash toweling by the bolt and cut it 
into yard lengths, hemming each end and fastening on a loop of 
braided cord to slip over the nail provided for the towel. It is not 
well for all the household to use the same towel, for it is now well 
known that diseases may be communicated in that way. It is really 
quite as easy to wash half a dozen small towels as one long roller 
towel, and it is not necessary that they should be ironed. 

BE SURE TO DRY YOUR TOWELS 

Towels should be dried thoroughly before being put away. If 
consigned to the linen closet after being ironed, before they are 
thoroughly aired, a mould called oidium forms on them, giving rise to 
a parasite which is liable to produce skin diseases. 

TO DO YOUR STARCHING SUCCESSFULLY 

"More starching is a failure from the starch being half cooked 
than from any other cause," said a capable housewife who was com- 
plimented on the perfection of the starched goods that came up from 
her laundry. "I make it a rule to have the starch boiled steadily an 
hour before it is strained. After this some of it is thinned to the 
proper condition for dresses, shirt waists and other pieces that require 
light starching." 



ii4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Starch that is not boiled enough will stick to the iron. If starch is 
not strained there will be uneven places in it. It is very little trouble 
to boil starch. It needs to be starred a few times after it begins to 
boil. Stretch a triangular bag across a pail and pour the starch 
through it. It will nearly all soon drip through, and it requires very 
little squeezing to press the remainder through. There is always 
some starch left in the strainer that cannot be used. It saves time to 
skim off the film that gathers over starch that has been boiled for a 
considerable length of time. 

TO MAKE WHITE SKIRTS STIFF 

If you have difficulty in getting white skirts stiff or to have "that 
rustle," the following is very effective: Starch the skirt, partly dry it, 
bring it in and restarch and dry quickly; if damped and ironed the 
same day it will suit the most fastidious. 

MAKING LACES CRISP AND GLOSSY 

When washing laces put a little sugar into the rinsing water — 
never starch — and your laces will be crisp and glossy. 

SOME WISE SUGGESTIONS ABOUT IRONING 

"Not being a strong woman I have to economize my work to make 
it lighter," writes a South Dakota farmer's wife. "When I take my 
clean clothes in from the line 1 do the most of my ironing in this 
manner. The sheets I first fold lengthwise, then double in the 
middle, then the longest way again. Pillow cases are folded length- 
wise, taking pains to fold them smoothly, and pressing with the 
hands. Flannel underwear and everything that is not starched is 
folded and pressed in like manner. If the clothes are a little damp 
it is all the better. I then hang them on a line where there is a fire and 
let dry thoroughly, then put away after mending. The starched ones 
are sprinkled and ironed after the usual manner. If a little sugar or 
salt and a lump of butter are added to the starch it irons easily and 
gives the clothes a nice luster. Water, cleansed with concentrated 
lye, makes white clothing beautifully white and wash easily. When I 
go down cellar I get everything that is needed to save steps. I sit 
down to peel potatoes and other vegetables. By economizing in this 
way it helps to accomplish a good day's work." 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 115 

TO MAKE IRONING EASIER 

Ironing is a tiresome task, but if you will take a small piece of 
beeswax (5 cents' worth should last you a year), tie up in a small 
white cloth and rub over the irons just before beginning to iron, then 
wipe them off on a clean cloth, they will slip over the clothes like 
magic and there will be no sticking on the starched pieces. 

Another Suggestion. — If your irons are rough put a little salt on 
paper and rub them upon it. This will prevent their sticking to any- 
thing that is starched and make them smooth. 

A HANDY SPRINKLER 

Try a clean and rather fine whisk-broom for sprinkling clothes to 
iron, also for giving house plants a shower bath. 

HOW TO DO UP LACE CURTAINS 

Curtains should be taken down and laundered as soon as they 
show soil, as this saves the curtains as well as preserves that fresh 
appearance which gives such an air of cleanliness to a room. If they 
are allowed to hang too long without cleaning they may be trans- 
formed from beautifiers into dust repositories. Lace curtains are 
often made to do duty for one more season because of the dread of 
laundering, when the work may be very easily done at home where it 
is not convenient to send them to the laundry, thus saving the no 
inconsiderable expense of professional cleaning. Lace or muslin 
curtains should never be rubbed on the washboard, nor should they 
be put in with the general wash. It is a kind of work that is worth 
doing well if worth doing at all. 

The curtains should be taken outdoors and shaken until no more 
loose dust will shake off them, then put them into warm water and 
let them remain over night. The next morning prepare a tubful of 
hot water and add enough pearline to make a strong suds; immerse 
them in this suds for an hour; then put them into fresh, cleaned suds, 
prepared in the same manner, each time squeezing the lace and 
rubbing and shaking them gently with the hands. Keep on renewing 
the suds and rubbing till the water is no longer dark; then rinse in 
clear, soft water. If the curtains are white the second rinse water 
may be made blue, as for clothes, If a cream color or ecru tint is 



n6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

preferred strong coffee should be added to the water; then dip them 
in thin, boiled starch slightly tinged with blue or brown as desired. 

As curtain stretchers are somewhat expensive they are purchased 
by comparatively few housekeepers who live in the country, but their 
curtains may be made to look quite as nice without them by pinning 
them to sheets which are tacked to the floor of some unused or spare 
room. If the curtains are alike it is easier to place the two corners 
together and stretch and pull them until they are perfectly straight, 
then pin each scallop to the sheet after carefully shaping it with the 
fingers. If the work is properly done they will not need ironing, and 
will have the appearance of new curtains. And last, but not least, 
when you come to replace them on the poles they should be draped 
in such a way as to have a pleasing effect, and not with mathematical 
precision, as they look better if arranged rather carelessly and not 
with such painstaking labor. 

LACE CURTAINS WINTER AND SUMMER 

As most housekeepers take down lace curtains for the winter it is 
well to know how to care for them. They should never be put away 
soiled. To wash lace, madras, or other light curtains or drapery, 
take them down, shake and brush the dust from them, put in a clean 
tub and cover with hot water, to which a little powdered borax has 
been added; let stand four or five hours, rinse well, squeeze and wring 
lightly; hang over the line until dry; take down, fold and lay in a box 
or drawer. 

When ready to be hung in the spring, select a bright, sunny day, 
wash the curtains through borax water to which a little starch is 
added, shake and squeeze them free of water. Spread clean sheets 
over the carpet in a spare room and fasten them securely. Pull 
the curtains free of wrinkles, place over the sheets smoothly, pin the 
corners and sides and let dry. When ready to put up unfasten, and 
the curtains will be found as well laundered as if the work had been 
done by a professional launderer. 

FINE LACE— HOW TO CLEAN AND KEEP IT 

It is hazardous to fold fine cobweb lace, and the reason so many 
people have trouble with their laces dropping to pieces is because 
they do not understand how to care for it. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES ttj 

The best way to keep it fresh is to drop it carelessly into a satin- 
lined box and allow it to remain in the position you place it. Do not 
finger it or move it about. 

Laces That Are Seldom Used or worn should be rolled upon strips 
of dark blue paper. This keeps the lace firm without creasing it. 
J To Clean Laces that are slightly soiled powdered magnesia is 
effective. Sprinkle some magnesia upon a smooth sheet of writing 
paper; lay the lace upon the paper and sprinkle more magnesia over 
it; cover with another sheet of paper and place a book or some light 
weight upon the paper, letting it rest for several days. Then take it 
up and brush the powder out. It will be cleaned nicely. 

When Lace Needs Washing it should be rolled tightly around a 
glass bottle and fastened securely. Make a suds of warm water and 
pearline and let the lace-covered bottle soak in this for several hours. 
Make fresh suds and repeat the process, patting the lace often with 
the fingers. Rinse in several waters and then dry the lace on the 
bottle with a soft towel. A little gum arabic dissolved in the last 
rinsing water will add to the stiffness of the dainty fabric. There are 
many ways, but for washing soiled lace the above is the best and 
safest. 

TO CLEAN DELICATE FABRICS 

To Remove Mildew from While Cloth stir one ounce of chloride 
of lime in a quart of cold water. After it has settled two or three 
hours pour the clear liquid off into a bottle, and it will be ready for 
use. Dip the mildewed spots in the liquid and let it dry. If one 
application does not remove the stain repeat the process. Rinse 
thoroughly in clear water. 

To Cleanse Grea.se from Wool or Silk, apply a fluid made by dis- 
solving two ounces of white soap and one-half ounce of borax in a 
, quart of warm soft water. Pour a small quantity into a bowl, add the 
same amount of water and sponge the goods with it. After it is 
clean sponge with clear water and hang it up to dry. 

Paint May Be Removed by washing the spots in turpentine. If the 
cloth is too heavy to be washed put two parts ammonia and one part 
turpentine in a bottle and shake well. Apply this until the paint is 
softened, and it can be scraped off. 

Lace Should Never Be Rubbed Hard, for this will break the deli- 



n8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

cate threads and destroy its beauty. Fill a large-mouthed bottle half 
full of water in which a little borax has been dissolved. Dip the lace 
in water and after rubbing soap on it, put it in the bottle and set it on 
the back of the stove or some other place where it will keep warm. 
Allow it to soak ten or twelve hours, shake it for a few minutes and 
pour it into a basin. Dip it up and down in the water, then squeeze 
it out (do not wring it), and rinse through two waters, adding a little 
boiled starch to the second. Press it while it is wet upon a clean 
marble slab to dry, placing each scallop straight and smooth. The 
borax cleanses the fabric without rotting or injuring it in any way. 

HOW TO DO UP DELICATE FABRICS 

Here is a good way to do up small pieces of fine lace, lace hand- 
kerchiefs or any small, flat, fine article: 

After carefully washing, scalding and rinsing, wipe carefully a 
large pane of glass in a window where the sun shines, and without 
squeezing or wringing the articles out of the last rinsing water, lay 
them against the window glass as you would lay a strip of pasted 
paper against the wall; carefully rub and smooth out every wrinkle 
and leave to dry and bleach. 

No ironing will be necessary, and articles thus treated will have a 
newer, fresher appearance than when ironed. 

SOME TRICKS FOR WASHDAY 

A Little Piece of Beeswax sewed inside a piece of cloth and used 
to rub the flatiron will make it perfectly smooth. 

A Little Sperm Candle in your starch will keep it from sticking. 

It Pays to Buy Your Soap, both toilet and laundry soap, by the box 
and dry it yourself, as it will go nearly as far again. 

Buy Your Bluing ii\ Powder Form and mix it yourself. It is just as 
good and much cheaper. 

SCRAPS OF TOILET SOAP AND HOW TO USE THEM 

It is often a subject thought seriously of, what is best to do with 
the scraps of toilet soap, kept by a careful housekeeper who feels that 
she must count the cost and study ways and means. Here is an excel- 
lent recipe which serves a housewife's interest in many ways: 

First, take a tin can and drop the small broken pieces of soap into 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES tig 

it until you get it nearly full; then dissolve three ounces of borax in 
two quarts of warm water, and stir all together in the can until 
melted. When cool it will form a jelly. A tablespoonful of this will 
make a strong lather in a gallon of water. If you haven't the scraps 
of soap, get two bars of good white soap and shave it fine and stir all 
together as above. But it is true economy to save the scraps of soap 
to use this way, as it cleans beautifully. It is good for washing 
matting and floor oilcloth, and it cleans nicely, without fading, the 
most delicate colors. 

When you wash your windows dissolve a little of this soap in the 
water and it cleans quickly; then polish with a chamois or newspaper. 
Where one has much housecleaning to do, this soap will answer every 
purpose. 

SPOTS ON CLOTHING -HOW TO REMOVE THEM 

Spots of Paint, Pitch, Oil or Grease may be removed from silk or 
linen by rubbing with purified benzine applied with a cloth or sponge. 
To destroy the unpleasant odor of benzine add a little oil of lemon. 

Fruit Stains May Be Removed from Clothing by pouring boiling 
water through them. 

Remove Ink Spots from Clothing with sour milk, and afterward rub 
a piece of lemon on which some salt has been sprinkled, upon the 
spot. 

Printers' Ink May Be Taken from Clothing by soaking it with tur- 
pentine for two or three hours, and then rubbing and brushing it 
thoroughly. 

Remove Tar Spots by putting butter upon them, and then wash 
out the grease spot with soap and water. 

GREASE SPOTS REMOVED 

A simple method of removing grease spots from silk and woolen 
goods is to saturate carbonate of magnesia with benzole and spread 
it upon the grease spot to about one-third of an inch in thickness. 
Put a sheet of paper over the cloth and press the spot with a moder- 
ately warm flatiron. The heat of the iron passes through and softens 
the grease, which is then taken up by the magnesia. After an hour 
take away the flatiron, brush off the magnesia dust and the spot will 
be gone. Soapstone dust or powdered chalk may be used in the 
same manner and will answer nearly as well. 



iso PRACTICAL RECIPES 

REMOVING FRUIT STAINS FROM LINEN 

Fruit stains may be removed from linen by rubbing the spots on 
each side with soap, then laying a smooth, thick paste of starch and 
water on them. Rub it in well, and lay the linen in the sunshine until 
dry. Repeat the process until every trace of the stain disappears. 

TO TAKE INK OUT OF WHITE LINEN 

Dip the spotted parts immediately in pure melted tallow, then 
wash out the tallow and the ink will have disappeared. 

IRON-RUST— HOW TO REMOVE 

Oxalic Acid Will Remove Iron-rust from clothing. Half a tea- 
spoonful of the acid in three tablespoonfuls of hot water makes a 
proper mixture with which to wash out the spots. It will bleach out 
the rust, and if washed afterward with clean water will not hurt the 
goods. 

Another Method. — The spotted part may be tied up with a little 
cream of tartar put into cold water and boiled, when the rust spots 
will come out. Lemon juice and salt are also good for the same 
purpose. 

Stains of Iron-rust May Be Removed from linen or cotton thus: 
Wash the cloth through one suds and rinse. When wet rub ripe 
tomato juice on the spot. Expose it in the sunshine until nearly dry 
and wash in another suds. 

TO RESTORE THE FINISH TO OLD GOODS 

The fine glossy finish that comes on certain grades of new woolen 
goods must sometimes be restored to make an article look well. 
Thus if a stain is made on the goods the gloss is removed when the 
stain is washed out. This leaves a dull spot on the goods, spoiling 
the general effect of the whole piece. To restore the original 
glossy finish the cloth should be laid on the table or other smooth 
surface and carefully brushed with weak gum water. Dip a clean 
toothbrush in the water and lay the gum water on carefully and 
evenly. Then place a sheet of clean white paper over it, and either 
press it with a lukewarm iron or put a weight on the paper and leave 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 121 

it there until dry. When the cloth is dry the dull spot will have dis- 
appeared, and if the operation has been performed successfully there 
will be no break in the glossy finish apparent to the eye. 

To Obtain the Rich Glossy Effect on Linen, it is advisable when 
washing to put a little gum arabic in the starch. Dissolve half a tea- 
spoonful of the gum arabic in boiling water, and when cool add to 
the starch. Linen when starched with this mixture will have a beauti- 
ful gloss. It is the only method by which the same exquisite finish 
can be obtained on linen goods as when first displayed for sale in the 
store windows. 

TO MAKE OLD BLACK CASHMERE LOOK NEW 

Soak the goods in strong soft-soap suds two hours; then, having 
dissolved one ounce of extract of logwood (which is the amount 
required for one dress) in a bowl of warm water, add warm (not hot) 
water to cover the goods, which should be taken from the suds 
without wringing. Allow the goods to stand in the logwood water 
over night; in the morning rinse in several waters without wringing; 
to the last water add one pint of sweet milk, which stiffens the goods 
a little; iron while quite damp. That is all there is to it, and the 
dress speaks for itself. 

Black Cashmere— Another Recipe. — To clean black cashmere wash 
it in hot suds in which a little borax has been dissolved. Rinse in bluing 
water — very blue — and iron while damp. If carefully done the mate- 
rial will look equal to new. 

TO RESTORE COLOR TO FADED RIBBONS 

By adding a little pearlash to soap lather, faded ribbons placed 
therein will be restored to their natural color. Faded breadths of 
silk can be restored if treated to a bath of this kind. 

TO REMOVE STAINS FROM WHITE CLOTH 

White clothing that has been discolored from red calico, or from 
streaks that are often found on napkins or towels, which by mistake 
have been washed with the white goods, maybe renovated by soaking 
a few days in buttermilk. Cloth that has turned yellow from long 
standing also may be whitened in the same manner. 



i22 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

WASHING COTTON GOODS WITHOUT FADING 

Two cups of salt dissolved in ten quarts of cold water is the proper 
mixture in which to dip cotton goods before washing them. Goods 
of black and white, slate color, brown or their shades, may then be 
washed with safety, for the salt sets the colors. After they have been 
dipped in the solution hang them in a shady place to dry and after- 
ward wash them in the usual way. Calicoes and muslins do not 
require hot suds, and should never be allowed to soak long in the 
water. Wash quickly, turn the wrong side out, dry in the shade, and 
always iron on the wrong side with a moderately hot iron. 

Very Delicate Cotton or Colored Things of any description, silk or 
flax embroideries and the like, should be put in bran water with 
soap jelly and no soap powder or soda; then rinsed in salt and water. 
To make the bran water, tie up a quart of bran in a muslin bag, boil 
it and let the water cool until it is almost tepid. Wash the articles 
thoroughly and quickly, rinse in cold, salt water, adding a little vine- 
gar if the colors want reviving. Pass through the wringer, hang in 
the shade, and iron on the wrong side before quite dry. This treat- 
ment is correct for cretonne also. 

CLEANING MUD STAINS FROM DRESSES 

Mud stains on a black dress may be removed by rubbing them 
with the cut surface of a raw potato. 

TO CLEAN A DIRTY MACKINTOSH 

Spread the mackintosh flat on a table and scrub it with a nail 
brush, using cold water and yellow soap. When all dirt is removed 
dip the cloak in several lots of clean, cold water, but do not wring it 
out. Shake well and hang it up in the open air if possible to dry. 
Failing this, let it hang in a cool room, but on no account put it near 
the fire. Hot water must never be used, and if there are any bad 
stains or grease marks which will not yield to the soap alone, rub a 
little turpentine on them. 

TO BRIGHTEN FADED PLUSH 

Faded plush may be brightened by brushing it very lightly with a 
sponge dipped in chloroform. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 123 



TO RESTORE COLOR DESTROYED BY ACID 

When color on a fabric has been accidentally or otherwise destroyed 
by acid, ammonia is applied to neutralize the same, after which an 
application of chloroform will, in almost all cases, restore the original 
color. The application of ammonia is common, but that of chloro- 
form is but little known. 



CLEANING KID GLOVES 

Kid gloves may be nicely cleaned if you will take the pains and 
have patience until you learn the system thoroughly. The material 
to use is gasoline or purified benzine, which is not quite so odorous. 
Both are highly inflammable, however, and the vapor arising from 
them is explosive if in reach of fire, so this work should never be 
done at night, nor in a room where there is a lamp or fire in the 
daytime. Use a bowl and pour into it enough of the liquid to cover 
the gloves, wetting them thoroughly. Then smooth one of them out 
on a clean board and with a soft brush, sponge or cotton cloth rub 
them carefully, one way only, from the wrist to the finger tips. If the 
first bowl of benzine becomes soiled before the gloves are thoroughly 
cleaned throw the liquid onto the ground and start again with some 
fresh. 

When you finish rinse and squeeze out in the clean benzine till 
they are as dry as possible, after which put them in the sun to 
continue drying. Have a clean, smooth stick about a foot long and 
rounded and tapered like a finger, and over this draw each finger of 
the gloves in turn, holding it smooth there while you rub it dry with 
fine soft muslin. When all this is done polish with white French 
powder and a soft flannel, keeping the glove fingers tight on the stick 
all the time. Put the gloves on every little while during the drying 
process, so they will not shrink too small, and when all is done you 
will be delighted with the results of your work. 

Sweet Milk and While Soap make another cleaning mixture for 
gloves, and sifted white corn-meal will likewise do a great deal for 
them if they are not very badly soiled. In the latter case the gloves 
are put on and the gloved hands are washed for ten or fifteen minutes 
in the meal, just as if you were washing your hands in water. 



124 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

TO MAKE GOOD SHOE POLISH 

A very good shoe polish may be made in the following manner: 
Take one pint of rain water, one quart of cider vinegar, one-fourth of 
a pound of broken glue, one-half pound of logwood chips, one-fourth 
ounce each of indigo and isinglass and a small tablespoonful of soft 
soap. Heat it to the boiling point, then set it on the back part of the 
stove and let it simmer for half an hour, when it should be strained 
through a cloth, put into a bottle and corked tightly. Run a stiff 
wire through the cork and on the end fasten a piece of sponge with 
which to apply the polish. 

HANDY POLISH FOR LADIES' SHOES 

The best black ink, mixed with the white of an egg, will give 
ladies' fine shoes color and shine without rubbing off. 

LADIES' LIQUID SHOE BLACKING 

Gum shellac, two ounces; aqua ammonia, one ounce; water, eight 
ounces; enough black aniline to color. Boil all the ingredients 
together (except the aniline) until the shellac has dissolved, then add 
the aniline with a sufficient quantity of water to make the whole fill a 
sixteen ounce (one pint) bottle. 

TO MAKE SHOE SOLES LAST LONGER 

Soak the soles of a pair of shoes in linseed oil before wearing, 
and they will last as long as the uppers; particularly do we recom- 
mend this for boys' shoes. 

HELPING BABY WALK IN NEW SHOES 

Babies are often troubled about walking when new shoes are first 
put on them. This may be overcome by scratching the slippery soles 
with any blunt instrument. 



CHAPTER VII 
DINING-ROOM, KITCHEN AND BEDROOM 

Table Linen and the Dining Table — Laundering Table Linen — Good Use 
for Worn Tablecloths — Decorating the Thanksgiving Table — Beautiful 
Centerpiece for the Table — The Dining-room "Handy" — Proper Care of 
Table Silver — Avoid White Wrapping Paper — How to Make House- 
work Easier — Kitchen Convenience and Comfort — A Kitchen "Memory 
Card" — Proper Ways to Wash Dishes — Dish Towels in Abundance — To 
Clean Tarnished Tin — Woodenware and Cooking Tins — Novel Uses for 
Salt — A Small Home-made Filter — Bedding for Winter and Summer — 
What to Do with Worn-out Blankets — An Easy Way to Clean 
Blankets — Cleaning Old Feather Beds — Bedbugs Destroyed — To Clean 
Hair Brushes and Combs. 

It is an old saying that "there are tricks in every trade," and so it is 
in housekeeping. There are more "tricks" and "short-cuts" in doing 
the work than the majority realize. In this department of the 
present volume it has been the intention to gather the best of these 
practical handy suggestions for housewives, so as to save them diffi- 
culties where possible, and solve some of the puzzles that rise in 
every home. And what could be more important than to save time 
and make the way easier for the deft and industrious ones who 
administer the affairs of the household so faithfully? 

TABLE LINEN AND THE DINING TABLE 

Dainty housekeeping pays for all the trouble it costs, in the 
comfort, and in the refining influence that does so much to mould the 
characters of the children. The dining-room should be bright and 
cheery and the table appointments above reproach. It is not enough 
to have fine table linen; it must be well looked after if we want to 
keep it at its best. You may have a lovely meal to serve, plenty of 
pretty china, glass and silver, but if your tablecloth is not snowy white 
and just the right stiffness your table will be spoiled in appearance. 

Any Thick White Fabric May Be Used for a Silence Cloth if you do 
not get the specially prepared goods that is sold for that purpose. 

Two or three thicknesses of a worn counterpane, or white blanket, or 

125 



i26 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

canton flannel, cut the proper size and sewed together, answers the 
purpose nicely. Such an under-cover makes the tablecloth look 
better, as it throws out the pattern of the damask, and it also 
prevents the table from wearing the linen. 

Over this spread the tablecloth. White is preferred for most 
occasions, although many good housekeepers use red damask for the 
breakfast table. Table linen is not costly nowadays, and a spotless 
cloth should be considered a necessity. It is economy to buy a good 
article, for cheap linen does not wear as well as a good quality. The 
unbleached linen is cheaper than the bleached, wears better, and is 
perfectly white after a few washings. The durability as well as the 
appearance depends upon the laundering. 

Examine the Table Linen Once a Week and darn the smallest 
break The secret of this homely art lies in running the thread so 
far on each side of the break that it does not immediately fray and 
pull out the fabric A tiny hole is easily darned, while a patch is very 
unsightly and ruins a nice tablecloth. Gather the tablecloths, 
napkins, doilies and sideboard covers together, and if any torn places 
are found darn them with threads drawn from new linen. Tray 
cloths should be used under all dishes the contents of which are 
liable to be spilled. These cloths save the table linen wonderfully, 
and are easily washed when they become soiled. 

The Plates are placed evenly with enough space between them to 
give each person plenty of room. When individual salt-cellars are 
used they should be placed directly in front of the plates. Almost 
any family can afford silver-plated knives and forks, which are nicer 
than steel ones, and save the scouring necessary to keep the others 
in good condition. A low vase for flowers should be placed on a 
linen centerpiece, embroidered or plain as you prefer. See that 
everything is in perfect order before announcing dinner. The cover 
for the sideboard is usually made of butchers' linen, with the edges 
finished with hemstitched hems, and an embroidered border across 
the ends. 

LAUNDERING TABLE LINEN 

When small cloths and napkins are washed and dried and ready 
to be ironed dip them in boiling water and wring out between dry 
cloths. Then iron rapidly with a hot flatiron and they will be glossy 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 12? 

and stiff. The method of laundering counts for so much in the care 
of linen, and all stains and spots must be removed before it is put in 
the wash. If fruit or coffee stains are found upon the linen place the 
cloth over a large bowl and pour through it boiling water from the 
teakettle. Kerosene will take iron rust and old fruit stains from the 
cloth without injuring the fabric. Wash the soiled spot in the oil 
before it is put into hot water or it will do no good. Grass stains 
may be removed by washing with alcohol. For chocolate stains use 
cold water, then boiling water from the teakettle. 

Table linen should be washed by itself to obtain the very best 
results. After all the stains have been removed heat the water, dis- 
solve a little borax in it, and add enough to make a good suds. Wash 
the linen in this. The plain pieces may be scalded ten minutes, but 
those that are embroidered should never be put in hot water, as it 
will cause the colored silk to fade, and the white silk to turn yellow. 
Rinse in two waters, adding a very little bluing to the second. When 
borax is added to the water in which the linen is washed it will 
cleanse and whiten it and save most of the rubbing which wears it out 
more than use. An old tablecloth looks better when it is starched, 
but a new cloth needs very little starching. Add a little starch to the 
second water if any stiffening is desired. The dainty woman who 
desires to keep her table linen up to the standard must be able to 
direct the laundress if she does not do the work herself, for a house- 
keeper is judged greatly by the appearance of her table linens. 

GOOD USE FOR WORN TABLECLOTHS 

Carving cloths may be made from the best portions of worn table- 
cloths. Some of them are made double and quilted on the machine 
with red wash cotton, forming diamonds all over them. This makes 
them wear better than they would without the stitching. Other 
pieces of the tablecloth may be lined with old muslin and feather- 
stitched with the cotton. These enable people to use tablecloths 
much longer without washing them. This, of course, serves to make 
the tablecloths wear longer, for it is the frequent washings more than 
the wear they get which destroys them. 

DECORATING THE THANKSGIVING TABLE 

One of the most simple and appropriate table decorations for the 
Thanksgiving dinner is a fruit bowl made out of a pumpkin used for 



128 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the centerpiece. Great care must be exercised in the selection of 
the pumpkin, and it is necessary to prepare it Thanksgiving morning, 
as otherwise it might discolor. Cut it in half, carefully scoop out the 
inside, line with tissue paper, and generously fill with fine fruit — 
oranges, grapes, apples and bananas, reserving two bunches of white 
and black grapes for the top. Over the edge of the bowl a few ferns 
peeping out give an artistic effect. Also scatter a few judiciously 
over the table. To further carry out the color scheme a huge 
pumpkin-colored satin bow may be placed at one corner of the table 
and an orange sherbet added to the meat course, served in orange 
cups, made by cutting the oranges in half and removing the inside. 

BEAUTIFUL CENTERPIECE FOR THE TABLE 

A centerpiece may be made for the dining table by taking a 
square looking-glass, minus a frame, and only those who have seen 
one can know how doubly effective flowers become when used in such 
an arrangement. A bouquet in a beautiful vase is not any the less 
beautiful when standing on the glass, while a handful of flowers 
dropped right on the glass or a border of ferns, grasses, or vines, or 
dainty branches of any sort placed on the edge of it produce an 
effect which must be seen to be appreciated. 

THE DINING-ROOM "HANDY" 

A cabinet for the dining-room fireplace may be made of pine 
obtained from dry goods boxes. This, of course, must be painted on 
the inside, and paint put on the edges, and when it is pushed into 
place only the inside will show. Ornaments such as mineral speci- 
mens can be placed on the shelves to help beautify the room while 
the fireplace is not in use. 

PROPER CARE OF TABLE SILVER. 

Every good housekeeper stores away silver not in use, wrapped 
piece by piece in cotton flannel. Silver in daily use can be kept 
bright if washed in hot water, dried perfectly, while still heated, on a 
soft cloth and laid in a basket or tray with brown tissue paper at 
bottom and sides and on top to keep damp air from it. Now and 
then a little ammonia in the hot water is an advantage, as it will 
remove egg and other stains. 




"IT'S FUN TO HELP MOTHER." 

A willing heart and a cheerful face not only lighten one's own work, but the labors 
of all those around. This is doubly true in household work, and while the little girl pic- 
tured above is exclaiming, " It's fun to help mother ! " the mother is saying in her own 
heart, " The little dear pays her. way a hundred times over." 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 129 

The Frosted Ornamentation of Silverware should never be cleaned 
with silver polish, for it will gradually wear down and become 
smooth and polished like the rest of the dishes. Instead use a soft 
brush and strong lye, rinsing with soft water. 

A Convenient Plan for Brightening Silverware without a powder 
or scouring is as follows: In one pint of soft water boil two ounces 
of carbonate of ammonia, powdered or broken up finely. Dip pieces 
of muslin in liquid and dry them without rinsing. When they are 
dry put them tightly together and lay them away for use. Simply 
rubbing the silverware with one of these pieces will give it a high 
polish. 

Soap Should Never Be Put on Silverware if you wish it to keep 
its first brightness. 

AVOID WHITE WRAPPING PAPER 

Never wrap white goods, silverware, or anything which can turn 
yellow or tarnish, in white paper. If blue paper can be had it is the 
best, but if that cannot be had use the common brown paper rather 
than white. The chemicals used in bleaching the white paper will 
turn white goods, either cotton or woolen, yellow and will cause 
metal of any kind to tarnish. 

HOW TO MAKE HOUSEWORK EASIER 

A good housekeeper is as proud of a neat and attractive kitchen 
as she is of a handsomely furnished parlor. To insure this, system 
is as necessary as strength, for kitchen work is not drudgery unless 
you make it so. The woman who never has any dishwater hot, 
allows the rice kettle to dry, and the fire to go out when she needs it 
most, and does many other things of that kind, makes the work 
much harder than it should be. Some housekeepers can find any- 
thing they want at a moment's notice, while others must make a 
search for the simplest article every time it is needed. 

The arrangement of the shelves in the pantry and kitchen may 
have much to do with making the work easier. Things that are 
needed most should occupy the shelves that are most easily reached, 
and all groceries should be put into boxes or cans that are plainly 
labeled. If all the materials for bread and cake making are put close 
to the flour bin it will save many a step. A coffee mill that is 



13© PRACTICAL RECIPES 

fastened to the wall, having a receptacle above to hold two pounds 
of coffee, and a cup below into which it falls when it is ground, is very 
convenient. 

A bracket lamp with a reflector that may be fastened to the wall 
or window frame costs only a few cents and is much better than 
having to carry a lamp around when it is needed. A clock that can 
be relied upon to give the correct time should occupy a conspicuous 
place. Hang a pair of scissors where you can be sure to have them 
when you need them. 

Many kinds of provisions are cheaper when bought in quantities, 
and there is always a comfort in having a supply at hand. Soap may 
be bought by the box, and the longer it is kept the better it will be. 
Starch will keep indefinitely. 

There are many tasks that may be performed while sitting down 
if you have an old office stool in the kitchen. If you have a high chair 
for which you have no further use the top may be sawed off, making 
a stool of it. 

' - KITCHEN CONVENIENCE AND COMFORT 

If there is one room in the house more than another that needs 
every convenience and comfort it is the kitchen. The housekeeper 
who elaborately furnishes her parlor at the expense of a bare, 
cheerless kitchen is not showing good management. 

In the first place, there should be good, full-length screens at 
windows and doors, and white sash curtains, no matter how simple, at 
the windows. Linen unbleached probably wears the best, but there 
are pretty cotton screens at a very low price, and other fabrics that 
will answer nicely, as for instance, a good quality of cheese cloth. 

When possible a kitchen veranda, screened with vines, will afford 
a cool retreat for preparation of vegetables, washing, etc. 

Oil or gasoline stoves will save much more energy and patience 
than you are apt to estimate. By planning to do all your baking in 
the early part of the day, before the house is heated, you will con- 
serve strength and health. Simplify meals in hot weather as much 
as possible — use more salads, fresh fruits, cold desserts and cooling 
fruit drinks. 

Instead of scrubbing the kitchen table so frequently cover it with 
oilcloth, which only requires wiping off with a wet cloth. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES i 3 i 

A KITCHEN "MEMORY CARD" 

Take the lid of a pasteboard shoebox, rule it with pen and ink, or 
pencil as for writing, and midway between lines at one side of the 
card make small round holes with a nail or leather punch. On each 
[line write the names of such kitchen articles as are ordinarily used, 
making perhaps twenty entries; make small wooden pegs for every 
hole, attach each peg to a thread, and all the threads to one nail, on 
which hang the card. When anything is wanted in the grocery line 
stick one of the pegs in the hole opposite that article. When the 
grocer calls or the husband goes to town refer to the card. 

WEAR SLEEVE GUARDS AT YOUR WORK 

A great comfort in household work is sleeve guards. Knit ribs to 
fit the wrist, and knit plain to reach above the elbow. If you wish 
sleeves up, pull up the shoulder and fasten with safety-pin. These 
sleeves can be made of cloth with rubber in the wrist. 

PROPER WAYS TO WASH DISHES 

The washing of dishes is regarded as a very little thing which 
anybody can do. The most ignorant of servant maids is insulted if 
you inquire as to her ability in this respect, and resents any reluct- 
ance on your part to entrust your most precious china to her tender 
mercies. Watch her, however, and see how she handles it; piling 
glass, silverware and china, thick or thin, into one promiscuous heap 
in a not over-clean dishpan; pouring a kettleful of water over it, the 
water boiling hot, or barely warm as may happen to suit her con- 
venience or the state of the kitchen fire; slashing the whole around, 
chipping and cracking it more or less in the process; draining the 
dishes, one upon top of another, without regard to weight or decora- 
tion, while the greasy water streaks on their dull surfaces; and finally 
wiping them, two or three at a time, upon a dingy, musty towel. 
Verily the sight is not one calculated to increase the appetites of per- 
sons destined to eat from dishes thus washed. 

To wash dishes properly begin right. Make ready for the work 
by clearing off neatly, removing every crumb and bit of food from 
each dish. Drain cups and glasses; group each set of dishes by 
itself, placing the cups and saucers together. Put the silver on a 
small tray or on a dish by itself. Pile plates and platters carefully in 



i 3 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

order, the greasy ones apart from the rest. Have plenty of hot, not 
merely warm water; soap which will make a good lather, or better 
still, a good washing powder, and plenty of clean towels. Whether a 
dish-cloth or mop is used depends upon your preference, but it is well 
to have both, a mop being indispensable for the cleaning of pitchers, 
glasses, etc. Besides you may wash dishes with a mop without even 
putting your hands into the water, thus keeping them from chapping 
in cold weather. If you use soap, have a soap cup, and never let 
your soap get into the dishpan. Dip the cup up and down, rubbing 
the mop on the soap until the dishwater is sufficiently soapy; just the 
proper degree of soapiness requisite must be learned by experience. 
By doing this you avoid all danger of finding bits of soap sticking to 
the dishes when you have finished. 

COMMON-SENSE IN THE KITCHEN 

There is more need of common-sense in culinary science than is 
ordinarily supposed, for we cannot become a strong people mentally 
unless our physical beings are well nourished. 

DISH TOWELS IN ABUNDANCE 

A good supply of dish towels is a necessity; do not try to get 
along with a few. Health and comfort are promoted by an abun- 
dance of every furnishing in the kitchen department. 

DON'T LEAVE GROCERIES IN PAPER BAGS 

All groceries and household supplies should be put away in their 
own proper receptacles, and not left standing in paper bags. Keep 
rice, oatmeal, cracked wheat, tapioca, etc., in close covered glass jars; 
tea and coffee in tin canisters; meal and flour in covered wooden 
buckets. 

CANS FOR STEAMED BROWN BREAD 

Tin tomato cans or large baking-powder cans are nice for steam- 
ing brown bread. 

TO CLEAN TARNISHED TIN 

You can clean the inside of your tin cooking utensils that have 
become tarnished from use, by filling them with soft water in which 
you have put a small piece of soap and boiling it for an hour or less. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 133 

TO RENEW RUSTED STOVEPIPE 

A little raw linseed oil rubbed upon a stovepipe will stop rust and 
remove rust spots. After it is dry stove polish will cover the place 
and the pipe will look as good as new. 

WOODENWARE AND COOKING TINS 

Dry cooking tins well before putting away. Woodenware should 
not be dried near the fire as it will warp or crack. 

HOW TO KEEP CHOPPING BOWLS FROM SPLITTING 

Wooden chopping bowls may be rendered proof against the 
splitting which is so often the despair of the neat housekeeper by 
rubbing glycerine into the bowl. Do this repeatedly in order to fill 
the fibers, and thus prevent them from shrinking. Wooden buckets 
also may be treated thus. 

ADVANTAGES OF PORCELAIN WARE 

Porcelain ware, if treated well, will prove the greatest comfort. 
A porcelain pail will stay sweet and clean with the least scouring. If 
you will use a warm suds of pearline in washing the ware daily, it acts 
like magic in cleaning. Porcelain pie-pans are very nice also. 

KEEP YOUR COFFEE-CAN CLOSED 

When coffee is roasted keep in a close tin canister or it will lose 
half the strength. 

COFFEE-POTS MUST BE CLEAN 

Always keep the inside of your coffee pot bright to ensure good 
coffee. Boil it out occasionally with soap, water and wood ashes, and 
scour thoroughly. 

SEALING-WAX FOR GLASS JARS 

To make sealing-wax for sealing bottles and glass jars, take tallow, 
lard, beeswax and vermilion, each one ounce, and one pound and 
four ounces of resin. Melt them together and use while hot. 

NOVEL USES FOR SALT 

A little fine dry salt rubbed on glassware, and more especially 
lamp chimneys after washing them, gives them a nice polish. 



134 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Another use of salt is to sprinkle a tiny pinch of it over ground coffee 
just before adding the hot water. It brings out and greatly improves 
the flavor. 

HOW TO KEEP FLIES OUT OF THE CHURN 

To keep flies out of the churn sew up a piece of cloth like a sack 
with no bottom, put a gathering string in one end, and tie around the 
churn below the ears. Bring the other end up and tie tight around 
the dasher, giving length enough to raise the dasher as high as you 
wish. Very handy when children have to churn. 

A SMALL HOMEMADE FILTER 

A home-made filter for a small quantity of liquid may be made by 
putting a piece of sponge over the hole in the bottom of a large 
flower-pot, which should then be filled three-fourths full of a mixture 
of clean sand and charcoal pounded into small bits. Over this lay a 
woolen cloth large enough to hang over the sides of the pot. After 
the fine dust has washed out of the charcoal from a few fillings of 
liquid a clear stream will flow through the filter. 

BEDDING FOR WINTER AND SUMMER 

Plenty of bedding is one of the necessities in every home. This 
should consist not only of what is used daily, but extra sheets and 
pillow-cases should be laid away in case of sickness in the family, 
which will come to us all sooner or later. It is a good plan when 
these become worn and thin, and before any breaks come in them, to 
supply new ones to take their places and put these away for use when 
extra ones are needed. 

It often happens in sickness that it is impossible to do washings, or 
to find help to do it for you, and then is when many extras are in great 
demand. Fine, unbleached muslin, when once whitened, washes 
more easily, and will retain its whiteness better than the bleached 
muslin, especially when one lives on a farm where there is much dirty 
work to be attended to. It is well, however, to have fine sheets and 
pillow-slips where one has much company. These may be made 
quite plain, or with much work, as leisure and circumstances permit. 
Verypretty pillow-slips are made by being hemstitched and trimmed 
with lace, or hemstitch and put in three fine tucks. Sheets look 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 135 

nice when hemstitched, but it takes considerable time to do this. 
The wide pillow-case muslin and sheeting is preferable, as it saves 
labor and wears as well, or better. When buying muslin for this 
purpose one should select that of good quality, for it is always 
cheaper in the end to buy good material. 

A few quilts for summer covering are convenient, but for cold 
weather good, thick comfortables, with a white counterpane on the 
outside, make a bed look well, and it is warm and more easily made 
than one with too many quilts. A counterpane is more easily washed 
and looks better than a quilt, and costs less if we count our labor 
anything. 

WHAT TO DO WITH WORN-OUT BLANKETS 

It is a good plan to look over the supply of blankets and see what 
we wish to do with them before the winter weather is upon us. A 
blanket seldom gets so badly worn that the pieces cannot be used. 
They usually wear thin in the middle first. Cut them in two length- 
wise, turn the selvedge edges toward the middle and overhand 
together just as you would a sheet. Finish the edges with buttonhole 
stitch, using any kind of yarn you happen to have. This will greatly 
lengthen their period of usefulness. If worn uniformly throughout 
they make good linings for woolen comforts, or the best pieces of 
several maybe joined together with flat seams and used for the inter- 
lining of a comfort, taking the place of part or all of the cotton 
batting, and making a very warm cover. 

In using two or more thicknesses of blanket in this way try to 
have the worn places in one come in a strong place in the other. It 
often happens that the ends of a blanket are quite good, while the 
remainder is worn threadbare. Cut them off and make winter skirts 
of them for the children. The lower edge may be bound or finished 
with scallops, crocheted of good yarn. If they are too light colored 
dye them any shade of red, brown or blue you prefer. They will look 
well and wear better than many materials that are sold for skirts. 

Blankets or any other woolen fabric may be washed without 
shrinking or losing their soft, fleecy look. Use soft water that is as 
warm as you can bear your hand in comfortably, and have the water 
the same temperature throughout the process. Dissolve enough 
pearline in the water to make a good suds and wash with as little 



136 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

rubbing as possible to remove the dirt. A good washing-machine 
and wringer are almost indispensable in this work. Wash through 
two suds and fold smoothly before passing through the wringer. Put 
them into the rinse water, having it slightly blue if the blankets are 
white. Hang lengthwise on the line, turning enough of the edge 
over to hold and putting a clothespin every four or five inches to 
fasten securely. Pull the sides and corners even and shake them 
to remove wrinkles. When dry fold them and place under a heavy 
weight for a day or two. They will then be ready for use. 

BLANKETS— AN EASY WAY TO CLEAN THEM 

Here is an easy way and an effective one for cleaning woolen 
blankets. Put two heaping tablespoonfuls of powdered borax and one 
pound of good soap into a tub of cold soft water. After they are 
dissolved put in the blankets to soak over night. The next day rub 
them and rinse them thoroughly in two waters. Do not twist them 
or wring them out by hand, but simply press out the water or put 
them through a wringer. After they have dried on the line iron them 
with an iron which is not very hot while they are still slightly damp. 
The same general rules apply that are suggested in connection with 
washing other woolens. 

CLEANING OLD FEATHER BEDS 

Old feather beds may be cleaned without opening them and with- 
out steam by giving them a good soaking with hot water, or even in 
a heavy rain. Then let them dry thoroughly in the sun, beating and 
shaking them up at frequent intervals, so that the feathers will not 
mat. It may take some little time for them to dry thoroughly, but 
the results are worth the effort. A frame of boards should be made 
on which the bed can rest while draining. 

To Clean the Tick at the Same Time, if it is stained, pulverize some 
starch and make a paste of it with soft soap. Cover the spots with 
this paste and when dry brush off and sponge the place with clean 
water. 

BEDBUGS DESTROYED 

To destroy bedbugs take a pint of alcohol, a pint of turpentine, 
and one ounce of gum camphor, thoroughly mixed. Brush the ends 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 137 

of the bed slats and all cracks where the vermin can hide with this 
mixture and you will find it very effective. Being inflammable, how- 
ever, no lamp must be used near it. 

Corrosive Sublimate of Mercury in alcohol, a mixture furnished by 
any druggist and very poisonous, is one of the most cleansing of 
compounds to destroy such insect pests. It must be kept with great 
care where it will not get into the hands of the children. 

TO DRIVE OUT MOSQUITOES 

Mosquitoes can be kept out of bedrooms at night by leaving a 
wide-mouthed bottle of oil of pennyroyal uncorked in the room. 

TO CLEAN HAIR BRUSHES AND COMBS 

Hair brushes and combs should be washed in a weak solution of 
ammonia, a tablespoonful to a pint of soft water. Then rinse them 
in clean, cold water; shake the water from them and put them to dry 
slowly, not in the sun or by the fire. Brushes with wooden backs 
must be handled carefully, for the ammonia will discolor the wood if 
it touches them. 

BEDROOM COMFORT 

Inasmuch as one-third of our life is spent in bed it is but fair that 
particular attention should be paid to the furnishing and comfort of 
the bed itself, and the room in which it stands. Let the bedroom be 
furnished with simplicity, not crowded with unnecessary furniture, 
the windows not draped with heavy, dust-catching fabrics, and the 
floor not covered with carpets quite impossible to keep clean. The 
walls should be as free as possible from ornaments. The pictures 
should be in simple frames, easily dusted. The floor should have a 
rug before the bed, and one before the washstand and dresser, the rest 
of the surface preferably of bare hardwood, oiled, or ordinary floor- 
ing, painted. Then, with proper ventilation and attention otherwise, 
you may feel really clean in that most important of rooms. 



CHAPTER VIII 
ABOUT THE HOUSE 

Managing the Family Wardrobe — Dress to Make Work Easier — Oilcloth 
Aprons for the Kitchen — An Idea for Underwaists — Making Old Hats 
New — Winter Clothing for Little Girls — Teaching Little Girls to Sew- 
Some Suggestions about House Plants — Growing Ferns for Table Pieces 
— To Destroy Weeds in the Lawn — Trailing Vines for the Walls — Help- 
ing Flower Seeds to Grow — Shrubs for Screening Foundations — Odd 
Designs for the Lawn — How to Make a Rose Jar — Rose Leaf Suggestions 
— Variety in Your House Arrangements — Sofa Pillows — Some Novel 
Ideas — Utility Boxes. 

It is essential that every department of the household should be 
governed by the same rules of close observation and care. It were 
the height of folly to save in the kitchen and waste in the most care- 
less manner in buying or taking care of clothing. We say of some 
people "they are born managers," but if we question them closely 
they will be apt to tell us they were trained to manage from their 
youth up. So many have to learn in the hard school of experience, 
and their lives are nearly spent before they have mastered the lesson. 

The selection and care of clothing is a very important matter. 
To know how to buy and what to buy, how to remodel old garments 
and take proper care of new ones is an essential part of a good house- 
keeper's education. A small outlay of money, aided by watchful- 
ness and care, will work wonders in making even a meager wardrobe 
last a long time and look well. 

DRESS TO MAKE WORK EASIER 

The short skirt is fine for morning wear and maybe worn without 
a petticoat but with full bloomers of material to suit the season. A 
woman who has once worked in a short skirt will never again drag a 
long one about her kitchen. 

For afternoon wear a dress may be made of navy blue calico, and 
worn with a white ruching in the neck and a white apron. It is nice 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 



T39 



enough in which to receive guests, while not too nice to wear while 
getting supper. Wash dresses for farm wear are the best. In the 
winter they should be made warm enough by heavier underwear. 

Long skirts cause many more steps, because one hand must be 
employed in holding the skirts away from the feet, when, with the 
short skirt, both hands may be put to work. Gored skirts may be 
made of denim with buttonholes worked in the band. The skirt 
can then be buttoned to waists of any material wished. In this way 
both skirt and waist are held in place, and the weight of the skirt 
comes on the shoulders, while long skirts cause the back to ache. 
Two or three waists are usually soiled before the skirt needs washing, 
for short skirts worn with big kitchen aprons do not soil very easily. 

OILCLOTH APRONS FOR THE KITCHEN 

Another use to which the light, pliable sort of oilcloth is adapted 
is the making of big aprons for kitchen wear. When washing, 
baking, canning or doing any of the work which is apt to muss one's 
clothing, so many aprons are needed that the laundry work required 
to keep a supply on hand is no slight thing when added to the week's 
work. A big apron of oilcloth may be put over the regular gingham 
one, and then it is but an instant's work to take it off if called to the 
door or where one wants to look fresh and clean. 

An Old Gossamer Cape, or the skirt of a mackintosh which has 
become too soiled for use in its original shape, will make an apron, 
which, while not as easily cleaned as the glazed oilcloth, will be a 
very good substitute as long as it lasts. 

AN IDEA FOR UNDERWAISTS 

For making underwaists a basque pattern may be used, and they 
should be carefully fitted. They can be made of heavy unbleached 
sheeting. The outside is cut lengthwise of the material, and the 
lining crosswise, which prevents the garment from becoming shape- 
less. The seams are lapped and stitched four times, then the lining 
and outside are quilted together in inch squares, which makes them 
firm. The garment is cut low in the neck, and has no sleeves. It 
comes well over the hips, and the petticoats can be buttoned on its 
lower edge, thus preventing extra thickness over the hips. Wherever 
desired, strips of tape may be stitched to the waist, covering strips of 



i 4 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

featherbone, which have previously been stitched in place. These 
waists wash easily. 

MAKING OLD HATS NEW 

Dainty and becoming hats need not be expensive ones, for there 
is many an old hat that could be freshened by brushing and sponging; 
the old crown maybe replaced by a new one of velvet or silk if neces- 
sary, and other alterations made that will greatly improve its appear- 
ance. 

To Clean a Hat Properly the trimming must be removed and the 
work begun with a thorough brushing to remove as much of the dust 
as possible. A black felt hat may be cleaned with ammonia and 
warm water and dried with a soft cloth, but if very soiled it must be 
scrubbed with a brush, then laid out on a flat board to dry, as it 
is apt to lose its shape if it is hung up when wet. Fuller's earth 
will clean tan or light brown. Rub it on with a piece of clean white 
flannel, and go over it the second time if the first is not sufficient. 
The lightest shades of tan may be cleaned in the same manner 
with oatmeal. It should be heated and applied with the flannel. 

A tan felt that was faded and sadly out of style was colored a 
beautiful dark slate with diamond dye for wool, and brought up to 
date by placing a wire around the brim and bending it into shape. 
When the hat was taken from the dye and rinsed it was soaked in 
glue water to give the desired degree of stiffness, and the crown was 
pressed over a tin pail and the brim placed flat on the table and 
ironed under a thin cloth. You can get any color or shade you wish 
and the work is quickly and easily done. A light felt will take any of 
the rich dark shades, such as cardinal red, wine color, brown or dark 
green. The trimming maybe made to cover any defects the hat may 
show when untrimmed. 

If You Have White Ostrich Feathers that are too soiled to be used 
again, wash them in a warm water suds with a little soda added 
to the water. Dip the feathers and draw them through the hand; 
repeat this until clean, then rinse in slightly blued water if you want 
them to remain white, but if they are of an undesirable shade they 
may be dyed black or any of the bright colors with the dyes for wool 
or silk; rinse in cold water and shake them over the fire until they 
are perfectly dry, and curl the feathers by drawing each fiber over 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 141 

the dull edge of a silver knife. Steel ornaments may be cleaned by 
scrubbing with a small nail brush, then polishing with a chamois or 
drying in sawdust. 

If every woman realized how pretty her old hat could be made 
many dollars might be saved, and this knowledge is especially useful 
where there are several girls to dress, for their hats can be pretty and 
stylish even if they are old ones made over. 

TO RENOVATE YOUR STRAW HAT 

A straw hat may be easily whitened and made fresh in the follow- 
ing manner: Remove all trimming from the hat and brush until it is 
as free from dust as it is possible to get it, then on a bright, sunny 
day take a brush and give the hat a good scrubbing with soapsuds. 
Do not try to wash it white, but simply remove the worst of the 
smoke and grime, and be quick about it in order to leave the stiffen- 
ing in the braid and the hat in good shape. While wet rub the braid 
full of sulphur and put the hat out in the brightest sunlight to be 
found. When dry rub the sulphur out with a brush and the result 
will be a surprise to one not familiar with the process. 

WINTER CLOTHING FOR LITTLE GIRLS 

Bloomers may be made for little girls to wear to school, out of 
black sateen. They may be lined with old flannel and quilted on the 
machine. The quilting is done before the seams of the bloomers are 
sewed. The lower part is sewed to the yoke of the sateen, made 
double and buttoned on each side with three buttons. The bottom 
of the leg is held just below the knee by means of rubber cord drawn 
into a narrow hem. 

These bloomers are warmer than three petticoats would be, and 
they make dresses look better than so many undergarments. When 
little girls wear these they can slide down hill and do not get covered 
with snow, and their underclothing, if exposed, does not look so badly 
as if it were white and thin. They can wear union suits next their 
bodies. These, with two pairs of stockings, one petticoat, one woolen 
gown, a stocking cap, mittens of angora wool and a lined jacket, 
enable them to go to school in the coldest weather without suffering, 
and to play out of doors with their brothers whenever they choose. 



142 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

AVOID RED FANCY WORK AT NIGHT 

It is claimed sometimes by physicians that the color red very 
often produces injurious effects upon the eyes. For this reason it is 
wise to eschew red embroidery as an evening occupation, and to sub- 
stitute for it green or blue, which are believed to be beneficial. 

TEACHING LITTLE GIRLS TO SEW 

The time for teaching a little girl sewing by giving her dish towels 
to hem and sheet seams to overhand is past. A better way has been 
found, and she learns happily and not grudgingly and with tears. 
The needle is no longer pushed with painful effort through rough 
crash and stiff sheeting, but slips easily through the bits of old linen 
and muslin that are destined to make something pretty to stock the 
little needlewoman's wardrobe or bed, or her own small tea table. 
She is using her imagination as well as her fingers, and happy indeed 
she may be. Is there any comparison, in point of interest, between a 
big dish towel and a dainty little one for play dishes, a small oblong 
cut from the whole portion of a big crash towel and hemmed neatly? 

A little girl will like to learn to darn linen if the- worn dinner 
napkin she is set to work on is afterward to be nicely washed and 
ironed and become one of her own little tablecloths. And could 
hemming fail to be alluring when the whole parts of another napkin 
are cut into squares for small fingers to make into doll napkins? 
From pieces of old handkerchiefs may be cut squares to be fringed for 
doilies, useful on doll tables and toy bureaus. In fitting up these 
bureaus with dainty knickknacks a little girl will enjoy many a scrap 
of lace and ribbon, and will learn to be skillful with her needle. 

NARKING SCHOOL HANDKERCHIEFS 

A mother is often annoyed by the number of handkerchiefs school 
children lose. If you will write the name of the owner upon them 
with indelible ink the finder will usually return them, and many dimes 
will be saved during the year. If neatly done it will not injure the 
appearance of the handkerchief. All garments should be plainly 
marked before they are sent to the. laundry. 

SOME SUGGESTIONS ABOUT HOUSE PLANTS 

Some people succeed with house plants and others fail, although 
seemingly the conditions are the same. There is something about 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 143 

house plants that is not well understood. They seem to flourish 
under little attentions and to fade when neglected in any degree. A 
little knowledge of their characteristics makes a great difference in 
their welfare. Some like sun and a high temperature, and others do 
best when kept comparatively cool. 

The Reason Why House Plants Do Not Succeed in so many homes 
is because the air of the rooms is too dry. If a room is kept warm 
all the time and closed from moisture, the air becomes very dry and 
no amount of watering the roots will make the plants flourish. Air 
that is kept so dry that house plants do not grow is too dry for the 
good health of those living in the house. In a stove or steam-heated 
house there should always be moisture enough to show on the 
windows in cold weather. Where windows do not "steam" in winter, 
water should be evaporated in the room until this occurs. 

Where the kitchen and the living-rooms adjoin, as they do in many 
houses, it is a good plan to keep the door between the rooms open 
except when cooking is being done, and at such times no harm can 
come to the plants, but the odors arising from the cooking may not 
be pleasant. 

More house plants are injured by too much water than by too 
little. Plants that are kept in common earthen pots need more water 
than those kept in glazed pots, as the water evaporates through the 
porous sides of unglazed pots. Many people have found tin cans the 
best things to keep house plants in, and use them in preference to 
unglazed pots. 

Red spiders and mealy bugs kill a good many house plants, but 
they may be washed off with rainwater and good soap. The soap 
does not hurt the plants if it is carefully rinsed off with warm rain 
water as soon as the washing is finished. 

The Earth That Is Put into the Pots is a most important factor in 
growing house plants. The best mixture is cow manure and clear 
sand in about equal quantities, piled up until thoroughly rotted and 
incorporated into a homogeneous mass. If to this is added a little of 
the flower fertilizer that is sold by florists the result will be altogether 
satisfactory. 

Those plants which have rough or heavy leaves should be 
sprinkled at least once a week to wash off the dust, and smooth- 
leaved plants should be carefully washed with a soft cloth every week. 



i 4 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

If the dust is allowed to accumulate on the leaves it will prevent the 
plants from breathing and they will die sooner or later. If little 
white worms get into the soil in the pots stick some matches into it 
with the heads down and they will soon die, the sulphur and phospho- 
rus being fatal to them. If red spiders or flies bother them cover the 
plants with an old newspaper and fumigate them by burning tobacco 
under the paper. 

As soon as a leaf begins to show signs of fading cut it off, and as 
soon as blossoms begin to pass their prime remove them so as to 
prevent the formation of seed. 

It is not practicable to keep an even temperature in the average 
dwelling house, but house plants can be made to flourish even if there 
is a wide variation in the temperature through the day and night. If 
the temperature is kept above the freezing point the flowers will live 
and flourish although not quite so vigorously as they will if the 
temperature never runs down below about 50 degrees. 

Begonias, coleus and other soft stemmed plants cannot be given 
too much sunshine nor too high a temperature in an ordinary dwell- 
ing house. Fuchsias, carnations, parlor ivy, geraniums and others 
that have woody stems and tough leaves do better when kept out of 
the direct rays of the sun, or at a little distance from a south window. 

It is best to let old plants, except fuchsias, begonias, cacti and 
ivies, die, and start new plants from cuttings each year. The old 
plants become scraggy and ill-shaped in a year and the new ones 
bloom best. 

House Plants Are Wholesome Things to have in the house. Some 
think they vitiate the air of a living-room, but the contrary is the 
truth. The poisonous carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas exhaled 
from the lungs of animate beings is absorbed by the leaves of plants 
and goes to their support. This shows that house plants are benefi- 
cial instead of injurious. 

It is perfectly easy to have flowers every day in the year if the 
house plants are not kept in too dry a room and are not watered too 
much at the roots. A house plant never needs water until it begins 
to show signs of thirst, but it should not be allowed to remain in this 
condition very long. By watching the plants one soon learns to 
know their needs in this direction and so keep them at their greatest 
thrift and best estate 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES US 

Where house plants are kept it is best to keep a vessel of water 
constantly on the heating stove. This keeps the air in the room 
somewhat moist and prevents the plants from drying out. This con- 
dition is also better for the people who live in the room, as it keeps 
down the finer particles of dust that always float in a room that is 
heated and kept perfectly dry. 

TO MAKE CUT FLOWERS LAST LONGER 

If a little camphor is added to the water in which cut flowers are 
put the period of their freshness will be considerably extended. 

GROWING FERNS FOR TABLE PIECES 

A very nice centerpiece is a plate of growing ferns. Go to the 
woods early enough in the season to get the ferns before the fronds 
are fairly unrolled. With them bring home plenty of the soil in 
which they were growing and some moss. After planting the ferns 
in their native soil on some old plates cover the whole thing over 
with the moss and keep the plates in a shady place. Very soon the 
ferns will be growing beautifully, and may be carried from place to 
place. A small oval platter is liked the best for the dining table. 
Put them where you will, such ferns will be admired, but in no place 
will they give quite so much pleasure as when sent into the sick room 
of some weary invalid to whom they are like a breath of new life with 
their fresh, green beauty and their woody fragrance. It is worth 
while to go to considerable trouble to secure the ferns, for they will 
grow year after year. Keep them growing summers and let them rest 
during the winter — in the darkest corner of the cellar. 

WEEDS IN THE LAWN— TO DESTROY 

Plantains and dandelions, when they invade a blue grass lawn, may 
be destroyed by dropping a drop of sulphuric acid into the center of 
each plant as it comes up from the ground. You must be careful not 
to get too much acid on the ground for it will kill the grass likewise 
where it touches. 

TRAILING VINES FOR THE WALLS 

No matter how beautiful your home is its appearance can be 
improved by the addition of a few trailing vines. If you are a busy 



i 4 6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

person and cannot give much time or attention to their cultivation be 
careful in your selections. It is a mistaken idea that vines keep a 
house damp; on the contrary they repel moisture. If you have room 
for only one it is difficult to choose between English ivy and Virginia 
creeper, though the latter seems to be a general favorite. Dense and 
green in summer, they are no less beautiful with their bright and 
glowing tints in autumn. If you choose English ivy plant it on the 
north side of the house. 

The trumpet creeper, with its dark leaves and beautiful red 
flowers, climbing oftentimes to the eaves, is very attractive. 

The wistaria is a favorite with many, but it requires careful train- 
ing, else its stems become too strong and hard to handle. 

The honeysuckle, of which there are many varieties, is very desir- 
able on account of its abundant foliage and sweet perfume. 

The showy, deep violet-colored flowers of the clematis jackmanii 
always attract a good deal of attention, but to keep the vines in good 
condition is quite a task. Some prefer the small flowered species, 
especially for porches and piazzas, on account of their profusion of 
blossoms; they grow readily and are beautiful until early fall. 

Climbing roses are always a delight to the eye, but special atten- 
tion is necessary to keep them free from insects. Of the many vari- 
eties, I doubt if any gives less trouble or is better loved than the 
old-fashioned prairie rose. There are many varieties of vines, but 
we have mentioned these because they are easy to get and easy to 
make grow. 

HELPING FLOWER SEEDS TO GROW 

When sowing fine flower seeds press down the soil lightly, sprinkle 
well and cover to the depth of an inch or so with clean hay. After 
this if the weather is very dry sprinkle once a day (over the hay) and 
your beds will keep moist and warm and there will be no crust. 

SHRUBS FOR SCREENING FOUNDATIONS 

Plant a few small shrubs near the house, so that the foundations 
of the house will be screened and the house seem to rise out of its 
surroundings. The choice of shrubs depends somewhat on the soil 
and location. There are a great many shrubs that are very appro- 
priate for planting on the grounds, but only a few will be named here. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 



M7 



Common Lilac, Syringa Vulgaris. — This is one of the commonest 
and most highly praised of garden shrubs, and one that has given 
rise, either by natural variation or by crossing with other species, to 
a great number of superior forms. The colors range from white to 
various forms of lilac. 

Syringa Persica. — This is a distinct small growing species, with 
slender straight branches, and lilac or white flowers produced in 
small clusters. The form bearing white flowers is named Syringa 
persica alba, and there is one with neatly divided foliage, Syringa 
persica lanciniata. 

Philadelphus. — This is a genus of shrubs which are remarkable 
for the abundance of white and usually sweet-scented flowers they 
produce. They will thrive on almost any good soil, and require no 
special treatment. Philadelphus coronarius, Philadelphus tomentosa, 
Philadelphus gordonianus are all large growing bushes and give a 
succession of bloom. 

Honeysuckles, or Lonicera, are all of the readiest culture, and 
succeed well even in poor soils. There are a large number of species, 
some vining and some of a sturdy, bushy habit. Lonicera fragrantis- 
sima blooms early and is very fragrant. It retains its leaves nearly 
all winter. Lonicera tartarica produces white and pink flowers in the 
spring, and later during the summer yellow and red berries are 
formed, which are as attractive as the blooms. 

Berberis Vulgaris also produces attractive flowers in the spring and 
scarlet fruit in the fall. 

Spireas are excellent shrubs and make very good low screens, and 
also give a beautiful display of flowers. Spirea Thunbergii, spirea Van 
Houttei and spirea reversiana give a succession of blooms. 

Deutzia Gracilis and DeutziaCrenata Floraplena are very compact 
shrubs with close spikes of very attractive flowers. 

ODD DESIGNS FOR THE LAWN 

As a general rule flowers look better when grown without trying 
for odd effects, but there are a few designs that always attract atten- 
tion. One of these is a gypsy camp-fire. Three poles are set up in 
the shape of a tripod and to these is hung an old iron pot of any 
kind. The pot is filled with soil and in it is planted candy tuft, sweet 
alyssum or any other free-blooming white flower. Under and 



i 4 8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

around the pot are planted scarlet geraniums. When the flowers 
begin to bloom the flowers of the geraniums represent the fire under 
the pot and the white flowers growing from the soil in the pot repre- 
sent the foam of the boiling dinner supposed to be in the pot. 

A floral tent is easily made by planting a pole in the ground, 
digging a circle eight or ten feet in diameter around it and planting 
in this any kind of flowering vines which are run on strings to the 
top of the pole. 

A very cool, pleasant summer house may be built by putting up a 
rough frame and roofing it, and then covering the sides with vines of 
all kinds. Morning glories, wild cucumbers, cypress, gourds and 
other climbing plants may be planted in variety and the growth of 
these will be an interesting study while enjoying their shade. 

A floral basket is made by sticking green willow twigs in the soil 
in the spring, setting them in the shape of a basket and weaving 
them together to represent the woven work of a basket. Two long 
twigs are twisted together as the handle, and when finished the 
basket is filled with soil and in it a variety of free-blooming flowers 
are planted. The willow twigs will grow and must be kept trimmed 
during the season, while the flowers, when they come into bloom, will 
look very much as if some one had been gathering a bouquet and 
had set it down and left it. This is one of the nicest effects imagin- 
able if nicely made and placed so as to look as if it might have been 
set down without thought. 

HOW TO MAKE A ROSE JAR 

You must busy yourself gathering and "curing" rose leaves with 
salt through the months of June and July in preparation for a pot- 
pourri, and then follow these directions: If there is a quart in all you 
have the foundation of a good potpourri. Now transfer the stock to 
a glass fruit jar, on the bottom of which you have placed two ounces 
of bruised allspice and as much stick cinnamon broken into large 
pieces. The water, if any, should be drained away. Here allow it to 
remain one month closely covered, stirring it up thoroughly every 
day from top to bottom. 

It is now ready for permanent preservation. The blue and white 
Japanese jar is best to hold it, for it preserves the fragrance. Now 
have ready an ounce each of mace, cloves and allspice closely ground, 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 149 

the same quantity of sliced ginger root and nutmeg, half as much 
anise seed and four ounces of musk, with six ounces of dried lavender 
flowers. Again strew the rose leaves in the permanent jar, alter- 
nating with these mixed spices, moistening from time to time with 
pure alcohol, using about one gill in all, and the jar is complete. If 
desired other flowers may be added, such as violets, heliotropes, 
mignonettes, rose geraniums and tuberoses. 

ROSE LEAF SUGGESTIONS 

People Who Have Rose Jars should not forget to add a little to 
them while roses are abundant, for that is the secret of keeping them 
in perfect condition year after year. Gather petals in the morning or 
evening and spread on a sheet in a shady place. Toss them up well 
every day until thoroughly dry, and then put in glass jars or some 
other tight receptacle until wanted for use. 

The Making of Rose Jars is not the only use to which these dried 
petals may be put, for rose pillows and rose bags are almost as desir- 
able. In all the summer rambles remember to mark the spots where 
cat-tails or milk-weed plants are seen growing; then when the proper 
time comes go and get the seed heads, or pods, and save the down 
from them. While a pillow made entirely of rose petals, or entirely 
of down, is desirable, one made from a mixture of the two is 
equally so. 

Make the ticks of fine muslin and of a size suitable for the place 
where it is to be used, for, of course, these pillows are too fine to be 
used as bed pillows and are meant for the sofa, the chair back or 
some like place. 

Cases of silk, lawn or lace make beautiful satchet bags when filled 
with rose petals, and may be made perfectly plain or embroidered as 
the maker sees fit. 

To Make a. Fine Tincture of Roses fill a can or wide-mouthed bottle 
with rose leaves and then put with them all the pure spirits of wine 
which the can will hold. Cork or seal and let stand at least two 
months before using. 

A Rose Paste for Flavoring is made by chopping a cup of rose 
petals with three cups of fine sugar until it becomes a smooth mass, 
and heating thoroughly in the oven, though not letting it remain long 



iSo PRACTICAL RECIPES 

enough to entirely melt the sugar. Put in air-tight cans and keep 
for six months before using. This paste is far superior to any 
extract, and being very strong a small quantity will flavor a cake. 

Another Recipe. — Gather the petals from full-blown, but not 
withered, roses; weigh them and place an equal weight of sugar in a 
vessel with just enough water to moisten it. Set the vessel in the sun 
until the sugar dissolves, then place over a slow fire. As soon as the 
syrup boils up add the rose leaves and stir gently for ten minutes, 
then remove from the fire and when cold pack in jars. 

VARIETY IN YOUR HOUSE ARRANGEMENTS 

Very few housewives are so fortunate as to be able to have one 
set of furniture and hangings for winter use and another for summer, 
but even when using the same things the year through it is a very 
easy thing to change effects by changing positions of furniture and 
pictures, and arranging a new style of draping for curtains and 
spreads. The deadly monotony of a room where everything is 
always found in the same position is enough to give one a fit of 
horrors, and it is inexcusable, too, for there is no reason for it. 

Nothing can do more to lighten and brighten rooms than a judi- 
cious use of looking-glasses. A long glass placed across the corner 
of a rather small room, with some dainty, though not expensive 
material draped in such a way as to look like portieres, may hide 
either a very cheap wooden frame or the absence of any frame at all, 
and with an arrangement of the stands, plants or furniture that will 
cause them, or at least part of them, to be reflected in the glass, the 
size of the room is, seemingly, almost doubled. 

To do this it is not needful to have a glass that will reach from 
the floor to the ceiling, for the curtains can be so draped as to 
suggest only a partial opening, but the higher it is, of course, the 
better the effect. Put a looking-glass in almost any possible position 
where it will double the effect of any beautiful object, and not look as 
if placed there to minister to personal vanity, and the room will be 
the more pleasant for it. In the summer time if there is a beautiful, 
leafy, flowery view from any window, hang a glass opposite that 
window and note what a fascination it will have for everyone who 
comes into the room. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 151 



SOFA PILLOWS— SOME NOVEL IDEAS 

This is decidedly an era of sofa cushions, and where the housewife 
does not possess the requisite skill in embroidery, or where her ambi- 
tion is for a pretty cushion without much expenditure of time she 
may utilize the silk scraps for this purpose. 

The pattern used for these covers is called "biscuit" work, and is 
very popular, as it makes lovely covers and any remnant of silken 
fabric, new or old, satin, velvet, plush, long or short pieces, from 
the smallest scrap to the discarded silk waist, can be used. If 
there is not enough silk for a square, one can be made with small 
pieces and the piecing concealed with narrow ribbon or any of 
the embroidery stitches. Cut the silk pieces into three inch squares 
and sew a box plait in each side, which will form a puff; now baste 
three sides to a lining two inches square, and before basting the 
fourth fill with cotton batting. There are several ways of arrang- 
ing the blocks, and the blending of colors may be varied to suit 
one's taste. 

A very handsome cover seen recently had not cost the owner any- 
thing but the time to make it, and it was prettily arranged like patch- 
work, alternating the light and dark colors. This is perhaps the best 
way where one has a great variety of pieces. The blocks were all 
made and then arranged to suit the maker's fancy. The lining had 
been an old light silk waist, colored with a dye of chosen hue, and a 
lot of white and faded ribbon was colored at the same time, and by 
weakening the dye during the process several different shades of red 
were obtained. The edges were trimmed with two shades of ribbon 
twisted together over a heavy cord which made quite a pretty finish. 
Some of the finer woolen scraps may be employed in this kind of 
work, but it is better not to mix them. If there is not enough silk 
make a cover of bright woolen pieces. 

Very nice down pillows can be made by saving chicken and turkey 
feathers and drying them. Put the feathers in a bag, and some 
leisure hour strip them and throw away the quills; put the down thus 
secured in another bag and tie it securely. Save them in v this way 
until you have enough for a cushion, and you will have a nice founda- 
tion for your cover. 



i 5 j PRACTICAL RECIPES 

UTILITY BOXES 

When one has no closet, or at best a small one, a set of "utility" 
boxes is a great help toward keeping clothes in good condition, and 
the room looking tidy. 

Have four light wooden boxes made of uniform shape, but each 
one smaller than another, so that when piled one on top of the other 
they will make a symmetrical looking pyramid. The only require- 
ment as to size is to have the largest one of a size that may be lifted 
easily when filled. In form they may be either square or oblong, 
according to the space where they will usually stand. 

First line the boxes, and cover them; prepare the cover in the 
same way; then hang the cover with light hinges and put handles on 
the ends of the box to lift it by. 

Some very beautiful boxes are lined with silkoline, covered with 
cretonne and fitted with brass hinges and handles. The question of 
trimmings is, of course, a matter of taste, and the amount one wants 
to expend. The boxes may be made of very inexpensive materials, 
and yet if they match, or at least harmonize with the other fur- 
nishings, will be truly ornamental as well as do away with the 
"cluttered" look which a lot of odds and ends of boxes will give to 
the prettiest of rooms. 

If one box is made long enough to lay a dress skirt in, and broad 
enough to be well proportioned, it is a good size for the bottom one 
of the set, and with a rug and a few cushions may be made to serve 
as a window seat on occasion, or as the seat in a temporary cozy 
corner. The possibilities of the set of boxes in the way of usefulness 
or ornament will never be quite realized until one has had them to 
use. 



CHAPTER IX 
SOUP, FISH AND MEAT RECIPES 

Something about Food Values and Nourishment — Degrees of Heat for Best 
Cooking — Practical Pointers about the Oven — Keeping Food from Spoil- 
ing — How to Measure for Recipes— Meat Soups— Vegetable Soups — Salt 
Fish— Fresh Fish— Dainty Dishes from Left-over Fish — Oysters and 
Clams — Chicken — Turkey — Miscellaneous Poultry Recipes — Beef — Mutton 
— Veal — Pork — Breakfast Dishes — Game — Fish and Meat Sauces. 

The growing interest of women in housekeeping, homemaking 
and all kinds of household affairs is the direct result of intellectual 
development. 

During the last generation there was a marked decadence in 
housewifery owing to the narrow-minded idea that a knowledge of 
housekeeping was incompatible with refinement and social grace. 

But a higher education has given to women a wider, larger range 
of vision, and the women of to-day recognize the dignity of labor. 
To be a capable and proficient professor of housewifery is now con- 
sidered by women of all stations in life to be not only necessary but 
desirable, and refined and educated women all over the country 
now heartily endorse George Herbert's divine truth, 

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws, 
Makes that and the action fine. 

A more recent writer, the anonymous author of Elizabeth and 
Her German Garden, says in that delightful book, with equal truth : 
"And above all, let the women, pretty and plain, married and single, 
study the art of cookery. If you are an artist in the kitchen you will 
always be esteemed." 

This department of the present volume has been planned to serve 
the homemakers who want to put more skill into their work, and to 
obtain more satisfactory results from it. It has not been the inten- 
tion to fill the pages with those things about cooking which everyone 

153 



i54 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

who cares to know, knows already. Instead of this the purpose has 
been to make it a treasury of valuable hints, of novel suggestions, of 
serviceable ideas. The intention has been to gather the information 
that will make the day's work simpler, easier and more interesting; 
to offer recipes which, without going into fancy cooking or increasing 
the cost, will make the meals more attractive, appetizing and whole- 
some; and to show the most practical and convenient ways of using 
the food that we buy, whether when first served or when "left over," 
so as to get the most benefit from it. 

The editor is one who believes that no food is too good for the 
average American household, in town or country, and that it is in 
many instances possible to make better use of the food at our dis- 
posal than is now the case. So it is that some recipes are included 
for the preparation of food not altogether familiar to everyone, but 
well worth using. 

LOOK AT THE INDEX 

It is specially urged upon all who wish to get the greatest service 
out of this department, as out of the whole volume, that they should 
make use of the index at all times. There is an eternal puzzle in 
classification. Should a recipe for apple pudding be included in a 
chapter on puddings or one on apples? Such questions arise scores of 
times in a book of wide scope. They have been answered as well as 
the editor's judgment could guide, but unavoidably there are separa- 
tions of subjects apparently connected in some instances. Therefore, 
to be certain that you are missing nothing, look at the index for 
whatever you want, and you will be reasonably sure to find it easily. 

SOMETHING ABOUT FOOD VALUES AND NOURISHMENT 

Although "hunger is the best sauce," a daintily garnished dish is 
the next best. 

A pound of lean beef and a quart of milk contain about the same 
amount of nourishment, but the meat, although it costs more, is more 
valuable for food, as it contains the nutriment in more suitable pro- 
portion. 

The popular notion that "fish is a brain food" is a mistake, for 
eminent physiologists tell us that fish no more than any other 
nitrogenous food contributes to brain growth and development. All 
nitrogenous foods, such as fish, meat, eggs, and so on, repair the 



COOKING RECIPES 155 

waste tissues of the body, but fish is of no more importance than the 
others. 

Corn-meal is an excellent food for winter, as it contains so much 
fat, and when eggs and milk are added to it, it has a high nutritive 
value. 

Four or five ounces of sugar is all that an adult in good health 
should eat in the course of a day. 

DEGREES OF HEAT FOR BEST COOKING 

One of the most vexing problems with which the young and inex- 
perienced housekeeper has to wrestle is the exact degree of heat 
required for cooking the various foods which she may have to 
prepare. As the digestibility as well as palatability of all roasted, 
baked and fried dishes depend upon the proper adjustment of the 
heat used in cooking to the requirements of the article to be cooked, 
it is absolutely necessary for every conscientious cook or housewife 
to pay special attention to this subject. It is largely a matter of 
judgment after all, for while general rules are helpful in a certain 
measure they cannot always be applied to particular cases, and the 
experienced cook or housekeeper can tell at a glance whether her 
roast, fish or chicken is receiving just the right amount of time and 
heat. 

As Regards Roasts, the hottest oven is required for beef and mutton, 
hot enough to at once form a crust on the outside of the meat, so 
that none of the rich juices may escape. The old rule of fifteen 
minutes to the pound and fifteen minutes over is a good one to 
follow in cooking these meats, unless one prefers them quite well 
done, when a longer time will be needed. Lamb, requiring fully 
twenty minutes to the pound, also needs a hot fire, though more 
steady than for beef or mutton, and not so hot at the start. 

Veal or pork, on the contrary, should be roasted in a moderate 
oven, so that the heat may pass through the outer skin to the very 
heart of the meat, leaving no particle of the fiber uncooked and on 
that account indigestible. The time of cooking is the same as for 
lamb, and the same rule may be followed with poultry. 

Pastry Is Best baked in a very hot oven, but the heat must be 
largely at the bottom, that the undercrust may be dry and crisp, not 
soggy. 



i 5 6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

All Articles Fried in deep fat must, as a rule, be cooked rapidly, but 
chicken and chops are exceptions, as they must be cooked slowly 
enough to be thoroughly done down to the bone. 

If the fat begins to foam while frying croquettes, codfish-balls or 
doughnuts, it is a sign that it is not hot enough. The frying should 
be stopped for a few moments and the kettle pulled to the front of 
the range until the proper degree of heat is reached. The digesti- 
bility of these articles depends upon their immediate encasement in 
a crust firm enough to prevent further absorption of the fat. When 
the fat begins to smoke a bit of bread may be dropped in, and if it 
browns while one can count sixty it is hot enough for doughnuts and 
potatoes; for croquettes, oysters and fish-balls it should be hot 
enough to brown the bread while counting forty. 

The Following List will be found quite helpful by those whose expe- 
rience along this line is as yet limited: 

To be cooked in a slow but steady oven — pork, veal. 

To be cooked in a moderate oven — poultry, game. 

To be cooked in a hot oven — beef, fish, omelets, mutton, bread, 
souffles, lamb, cake, puddings. 

To be cooked in a very hot oven — chicken, pork chops. 

To be fried deep in boiling fat — soft-shell crabs, crullers, oysters, 
croquettes, scallops, fritters, potatoes. 

To be saute in hot shallow fat — fish, omelets, sliced ham, eggs. 

PRACTICAL POINTERS ABOUT THE OVEN 

The use of a thermometer in the oven of a practical cook is an 
assurance of success in baking. 

If your oven is too hot you can cool it by putting in a dish of cold 
water. If it is too hot on the top lift the lids which are over the oven. 

Baking-powder biscuits require much more heat than bread; 440 
degrees Fahrenheit is right for biscuit, while a temperature of 380 
degrees is better for bread. 

Bread crusts should be dried in the oven and put away in paper 
bags until wanted for use. 

KEEPING FOOD FROM SPOILING 

Any food which has been kept on ice will spoil much more rapidly 
after being taken off than that which has not been on ice at all, but 
this fact is particularly true in regard to meats. 



COOKING RECIPES 157 

Another place where food-stuffs are often spoiled is in the oven. 
Be sure that the oven is hot enough to begin the cooking process at 
once when anything is put in, for many a roast shows taint that 
would have been sweet if the oven had been hot enough when it was 
put in. What is true of meat is equally true of milk and some other 
things, and care is required concerning these little points. 

TIN VERSUS EARTHEN DISHES 

Tin basins should never be used for food that is to stand in them 
over night. Better get earthen pudding dishes, which leave no bad 
taste in the food. 

HOW TO MEASURE FOR RECIPES 

Four teaspoonfuls of liquid make one tablespoonful. 

Eight tablespoonfuls of liquid, one gill or a quarter of a pint. 

A tablespoonful of liquid, half an ounce. 

A pint of liquid weighs a pound. 

A quart of sifted flour, one pound. 

Four kitchen cupfuls of flour, one pound. 

Three kitchen cupfuls of corn-meal, one pound. 

One cup of butter, half a pound. 

A solid pint of chopped meat, one pound. 

Ten eggs, one pound. 

A dash of pepper, eighth of a teaspoonful. 

A pint of brown sugar, thirteen ounces. 

Two cuofuls and a half of powdered sugar, one pound. 

SOUPS 

When Making Meal Soup put away a can of the rich stock to be used 
some other day. Do not try to keep it very long, but it is well to 
have a can of soup stock on hand, for with that as a foundation one 
may make many varieties of soup. It is also nice when making meat 
pie from bits of meat that have been left over, and from it one can 
have good gravy even when there is no meat on the table. 

Mutton Broth. — Cut four pounds of lean mutton into small pieces 
and boil it for two hours slowly with one gallon of water in a covered 
vessel. Then add half a teacupful of rice, which has been soaked in 



i53 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

warm water. Cook it for an hour longer and season in the" usual 
fashion. This is one of the best soups for invalids. 

Beef Soup. — The stock for beef soup should be made the day 
before it is to be used. Take lean beef and have the bones well 
cracked, so that you can put the marrow into the soup. The rule is a 
pound of meat to a quart of water. Put the meat and bones into the 
water in a covered kettle and boil it slowly for six hours, after which 
set it away to cool. In the morning take off the fat, which will be 
floating on the surface, heat the stock slowly and throw in a little salt. 
The scum will rise to the surface and can be skimmed easily. If you 
have started with six quarts of water and have replenished it during 
the boiling when it got too low, you will have enough stock for a large 
service of soup. Slice two carrots, three turnips, half a head of 
cabbage, one head of celery, one quart of tomatoes and a pint of 
green corn. The vegetables must be stewed in a small amount of 
water until they break to pieces. It is best to cook the cabbage by 
itself in two waters, throwing the first away. These vegetables 
should be put into the stock after it is skimmed and the whole 
mixture boiled slowly for half an hour. Strain the soup without 
pressing, and it is ready to serve. The seasoning should be salt and 
pepper and such sweet herbs as you prefer. The same stock can be 
used for many other soups. 

Chicken Soup. — Take two young chickens, or one full grown one, 
and cut them into pieces as for fricassee. Put these pieces with half 
a pound of ham into a quart of water and stew until they are fairly 
tender. Then take out the breasts, leaving the rest of the meat in 
the pot, and add three quarts of boiling water. Keep the soup stew- 
ing slowly while you chop up the white meat you have taken out. 
Rub the yolks of four hard boiled eggs smooth in a bowl, moistening 
to a paste with a few spoonfuls of the soup. Mix with these a hand- 
ful of fine bread crumbs and the chopped meat and make it into 
small balls. After the soup has boiled in all two hours and a half 
strain out the meat and bones. Season with salt and pepper and with 
a bunch of parsley chopped fine. Drop in the balls of prepared force 
meat and after boiling ten minutes longer add, a little at a time, a 
pint of rich milk thickened with flour. Boil up once and serve. 

Oyster Soup. — Put the liquor from two quarts of oysters into a tea- 
cupful of water and heat slowly in a covered vessel. When near 



COOKING RECIPES 



i59 



boiling season with pepper and salt and pour in the oysters, letting 
them stew for about five minutes. At the end of this time put in a 
quart of milk in which two tablespoonfuls of butter have been heated 
in a separate vessel and stir well for two minutes. 

The important thing about oyster soup is to have it cooked just 
enough. The rule is that when the edges begin to rise in corruga- 
tions or ruffles they are at the proper stage to remove. 

Tomato Soup. — Boil three pounds of beef in a gallon of water for 
two hours, or until the liquid is reduced to two quarts. Then stir in 
one quart of canned tomatoes and stew slowly for three-quarters of 
an hour or more. Season with pepper and salt to taste and with a 
small onion sliced thin if desired. Strain and serve. 

Fresh tomatoes may be used in summer instead of the canned 
ones by taking two quarts of the vegetables, peeling and cutting 
them fine. 

Corn Soup. — A delicious soup may be made with corn and chicken. 
Cut the corn from a dozen ears of green corn and put the fowl, cut 
into eight pieces, into a gallon of water with the cobs. Boil slowly 
until the fowl is tender, no matter how long it takes, and then put the 
corn in and stew for another hour. Take out the chicken and the 
cobs and season the corn soup to taste. Put in a little rice or wheat 
flour to thicken, bring the soup to a boil and serve it without strain- 
ing. You have the chicken left for fricassee or some other fancy 
dish. 

Macaroni Soup. — Three pounds of knuckle of veal, two pounds of 
lean beef, one pound of lean ham, two onions, one carrot, a turnip, a 
bunch of sweet herbs, one-fourth of a pound of macaroni cut into 
fancy shapes usually known as Italian paste, six cloves, three table- 
spoonfuls of butter and six quarts of water. Mince the meat, break 
the bones and slice the vegetables. Mix all together. Put the butter 
in the bottom of a soup pot, then the meat, the vegetables and herbs; 
put on a tight lid and set the pot where it will warm slowly; at the 
end of an hour pour off the gravy, increase the heat until the meat 
begins to brown on the sides of the pot; return the gravy to the rest 
of the ingredients, cover with six quarts of cold water and boil until 
the liquor has fallen to four quarts; this should be in four hours. 
Strain the soup, pressing out all the nourishment and rubbing the 
vegetables through the sieve; add the paste, or, if you cannot obtain 



160 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

it, the same quantity of macaroni; season, boil up, skim well and let 
all cook together for ten minutes. 

Cream Combination Soup. — To one small chicken, one veal shank, 
four stalks of celery, one teaspoon salt, and one-half bay leaf, add 
one gallon of water. Boil down to two quarts. To one tablespoon 
butter, to which two tablespoons flour have been added when melted, 
add one pint thin cream and one quart of stock. Season with salt 
and pepper and serve with a spoon of whipped cream on each cup. 

Juvenile Soup. — Heat brown or white stock to boiling point. For 
every dish of soup you make, measure an even tablespoonful of 
macaroni letters, and cook in stock until swelled up and tender. 
Season well and serve very hot. The letters may be purchased in 
pound packages. The A B C's furnish a new method by which to 
persuade children to eat soup. 

Green Pea Soup. — Put a quart of tender shelled peas into two quarts 
of boiling veal or beef broth, and continue boiling ten or fifteen 
minutes longer. Add half a teaspoonful of sugar and a sprig of mint, 
then stir in a tablespoonful of butter, and pepper and salt to taste. 
After another fifteen minutes of boiling strain and serve. 

Potato Soup. — This is a very good as well as nourishing soup, nice 
to serve with a dinner of fish or cold meats. Pare four good-sized 
potatoes and put on to boil in one quart of cold water. In fifteen 
minutes, or when half done, drain off the water and cover with a pint 
of fresh boiling water; add a sprig of parsley or bay leaf, a small 
onion sliced, and a stalk of celery or quarter of a tablespoonful of 
celery seed. When potatoes are quite done press through a sieve. 
Rub two level tablespoonfuls of butter to a smooth paste, with two 
level tablespoonfuls flour. Scald one quart of milk and add butter 
and flour and stir over the fire until it thickens slightly. Turn this 
over the mashed potatoes, stir all over the fire until smooth, season 
with salt and white pepper to taste, and serve at once. This soup is 
not good warmed over. 

Cream of Celery Soup. — A pint of milk, a tablespoonful of flour, a 
head of celery, a large slice of onion and a small piece of mace. Boil 
celery in a pint of water from thirty to forty-five minutes; boil mace, 
onion and milk together. Mix flour with two tablespoonfuls of cold 
milk and add to boiling milk. Cook ten minutes. Mash celery in 
the water in which it has been cooked, and stir into boiling milk. 



COOKING RECIPES 161 

Add butter and season with salt and pepper. Strain and serve 
immediately. 

Salsify Soup. — Prepare white sauce for soup as follows: One level 
tablespoonful of butter, one level tablespoonful of flour, one-half tea- 
spoonful of salt, one saltspoonful of pepper, one cup of milk. 
Combine salt, pepper and flour. Have butter melted in saucepan; 
stir in flour till smooth, then add hot milk gradually, stirring five 
minutes. Thin to consistency required. Boil the salsify, slice into 
pieces one-fourth of an inch thick, and add to the white sauce. 
Serve hot. 

Bean Soup. — Soak a pint of split beans over night. In the morning 
put them in a granite saucepan with half a pound of pickled pork 
and plenty of cold water. Let come to a boil; then drain the water 
off. Repeat this again; then boil steadily for four hours. Pare half 
a dozen medium-sized potatoes and cook with the beans another 
hour. Mash all through a colander; season with salt and pepper 
and serve. 

Onion Soup consists of two or three large onions, one and a half 
pints of boiling milk, three potatoes, one pint of boiling water, half an 
ounce of butter, pepper and salt. Put the butter in a saucepan, and 
when very hot add the onions sliced thin. Stir and cook them until 
they are red ; then add half a teacupful of flour. Stir this also until red, 
watching that it does not burn. Then add the boiling water, pepper 
and salt, mix them well in and let the mixture boil a minute. Then 
pour into a porcelain lined kettle and let it stand on the back of the 
range until almost time to serve; then add the boiling milk and have 
ready three well boiled mashed potatoes, add to the potatoes a little 
of the soup at first, then more, until, they are smooth and thin enough 
to pour into the soup kettle; stir all together and season. Let it 
simmer a few minutes, put pieces of toasted bread cut in diamond 
shapes into the soup plates; pour the soup over them and serve very 
hot. 

Vegetable Soup without Meat. — Take one carrot, one sweet potato, 
one turnip, one onion, one parsnip, one white potato, a celery root, 
one tablespoonful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of rice, two quarts of 
cold water, one bay leaf, a sprig of parsley, one cup of tomatoes, ripe 
or canned, and pepper and salt to taste. Cut the vegetables into 
dice. Put the butter in frying-pan and when hot turn in all the vege- 



i6 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

tables except the white potato and tomato, and fry a golden brown. 
Then turn butter and all into a soup kettle; add the two quarts of 
water, rice, bay leaf, salt, celery and tomato; simmer for an hour and 
a quarter, then add the white potato and boil for fifteen minutes; 
season and serve. 

Crecy Soup. — Clean, scrape, and cut into thin slices enough carrots 
to make two cupfuls; slice one onion and brown, it in a saucepan 
with one tablespoonful of butter; stir in one tablespoonful of flour 
and- when that is brown add three cupfuls of hot water, one table- 
spoonful of cleaned rice and the carrots; cook until the carrots and 
rice are very tender; run through a sieve, return to the fire, add 
three cupfuls of stock, one-half teaspoonful of salt and one saltspoon- 
ful of pepper; simmer for ten minutes, then it will be ready to serve. 

Pea Soup.— One cup dried peas, put to soak before breakfast, either 
soup stock or meat bones and water, one potato, one onion, two 
cloves, stalk of celery, salt and pepper. Boil three hours, rub through 
wire sieve and serve. 

Peanut Soup. — Put one-half pint peanut butter into a quart of milk, 
add a few slices of onion. Cook in double boiler for ten minutes. 
Moisten one tablespoon of corn-starch in a little cold milk, add to hot 
mixture and stir until thick enough. Add salt and pepper. 

Egg Soup. — One quart of milk, soda the size of a pea, a minced 
onion. Heat in a double boiler. Rub to a paste a tablespoonful each 
of butter and flour. Stir into the milk. Add one scant teaspoonful 
of salt, six shakes of paprika. Beat two eggs in a tureen. When 
the white soup is smooth and cream-like pour it over the eggs, stirring 
briskly. Serve very hot. 

Parmesan Croutons. — Cut out of stale Vienna rolls little rounds of 
bread the size of a silver half-dollar. Dip them in melted butter, roll 
in Parmesan cheese and bake them a deep yellow. Put in soup 
immediately before serving. 

FISH 

A few words as to selecting fresh fish may be as seasonable as the 
fish themselves. No amount of skill in cooking can make good a 
lack of judgment in buying, but a fish in good condition is easily dis- 
tinguished from one that is not, if a few simple points are borne in 
mind. The eyes of a freshly caught fish are bright and clear, but 



COOKING RECIPEvS 163 

not glassy, and are slightly sunken; the flesh is firm and elastic, and 
the skin is tight. In all white fish the under side of the fish is of a 
light yellow shade when fresh and prime, so if this part of the fish 
shows a blue shade of color it tells that the fish is either out of season 
or has been out of water too long to be good. 

Boiled Finnan Haddie.— Cut the dried fish into cubes, put into a 
saucepan with a bay leaf, slice of onion, a few whole cloves', and six 
peppercorns, a sprig of parsley and a little lemon juice or good vinegar. 
Just cover with boiling water; put cover on and let fish remain just 
at steaming point for ten or fifteen minutes. Then drain carefully 
and put in a heated dish, spread over with melted butter, pepper and 
salt or serve with tomato sauce. 

Baked Finnan Haddie. — Place fish in a baking-pan, just cover with 
milk and water in equal proportions, and place on back of range 
where it will heat slowly. Let stand for twenty-five minutes, then 
pour off the liquid, spread with butter, and bake in oven for about 
twenty minutes. Just before putting in the oven the fish may be 
covered with sauce made by melting two level tablespoonfuls of 
butter, adding a cupful of rich milk or cream, a bay leaf, onion, 
parsley and mignonette pepper, sprinkled with bread crumbs and bits 
of butter and baked a delicate brown. 

Finnan Haddie a la Delmonico.— Pick up half of a finnan haddock 
and cook in a dessertspoonful of fresh butter, adding a cupful of 
cream, a hard boiled egg cut in small squares, the yolk of a raw egg 
and one teaspoonful of grated cheese; thicken with a teaspoonful of 
flour; season with third of a teaspoonful of salt, nearly as much 
pepper, a dash of cayenne. Cook slowly for ten minutes. 

Baked Fresh Haddock. — Stuff a haddock with a cupful of bread 
crumbs mixed with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a tea- 
spoonful each of chopped onion and cucumber pickles and the yolk 
of an egg. Season with a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt and three 
dashes of pepper. Truss the fish in shape of letter S. Dredge with 
flour, cover with slices of salt pork. Bake until brown. Garnish 
with fried oyster and lemon. 

Deviled Fish. — Boil a fresh haddock until nearly done, then remove 
from the kettle, lay on a greased tin and spread with the following 
mixture: one teaspoonful of horse radish, two teaspoonfuls of 
chutney sauce, one and one-half teaspoonfuls of anchovy essence, 



i6 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

one tablespoonful of butter, one-half teaspoonful of salt, one salt- 
spoonful of paprika and two teaspoonfuls of French mustard. Mix 
all into a paste, spread thickly over the fish, sprinkle with bread 
crumbs and bake ten minutes. 

Boiled Salt Codfish. — Soak the fish from early evening until nearly 
noon the next day, changing it into fresh water at least two or three 
times, washing off the salt after each time. Two hours before you 
want to use it put it into very cold water, which will make the fish 
firm. The other waters in which it has been put to soak should be 
warm. Boil the fish for half an hour in just water enough to cover 
it, and after draining it serve on a hot dish with egg sauce poured 
over it. Salt mackerel can be prepared in the same way. 

Fried Codfish. — Skin, clean and remove the heads. Sprinkle with 
salt and let them drain for an hour. Dip them in egg beaten to a 
froth and then in powdered crackers and fry quickly in very hot lard. 

Mackerel. — Procure a large, fat mackerel. Two days before using 
it place in water. The night before using cut in two lengthwise and 
dry on a plank over night. In the morning place in broiler and broil 
over hot coals. Turn into a hot platter and season with butter. 

Smelts. — Put a root of parsley, half a teaspoonful of salt and a 
dusting of mace into a pint of water and cook ten minutes. Then lay 
in twelve smelts dusted very lightly with flour. Boil them ten 
minutes and dish, pouring over them liquor reduced and strained. 
Serve with bread and butter. 

Filling for Fish. — One pint bread crumbs, two tablespoonfuls melted 
butter, one-half teaspoonful salt, a dash of cayenne and two table- 
spoonfuls of finely chopped cucumber pickle. 

DAINTY DISHES FROM LEFT-OVER FISH 

It is comparatively easy to cook and serve fish in dainty and 
appetizing ways at the first cooking, but when it comes to making 
palatable dishes from the left-over portions, it becomes a more diffi- 
cult task, and yet fragments of baked, broiled or boiled fish may be 
served in ways which will outrank the first serving. 

To Prepare Creamed Fish. — Remove all bones and skin from the 
portions of the fish that may be left, mash them fine and season with 
butter, salt and pepper; add an equal quantity of well-seasoned 



COOKING RECIPES 165 

mashed potatoes; moisten well with milk, and bake in a pudding-dish 
just long enough to brown nicely. 

Fish Casserole consists of one cupful of any cold fish, flaked, 
seasoned and moistened with a little cream, the same quantity of 
mashed potatoes and two hard boiled eggs. Butter a small mold and 
put in alternate layers of potatoes, fish and sliced egg. Steam twenty 
minutes, turn out upon a hot platter and garnish with parsley. 

Fish Chops. — To one can of salmon from which the skin and bones 
have been removed add three rolled, shredded wheat biscuits, one- 
half of a teaspoonful of salt, one-eighth of a teaspoonful of paprika 
and one cup of white sauce. Set away to cool. At dinner time 
shape into chops (about ten), stick a piece of macaroni in at the end 
for the bone, roll in shredded wheat biscuit crumbs and fry in deep 
fat until a rich brown. Garnish with parsley and serve, while hot, 
with quarters of lemon. Cold meat could be used instead of salmon. 

ESCALLOPED FISH— VARIOUS RECIPES 

Pick into flakes, after removing the skin and bones; make a sauce 
by boiling some very rich milk, or cream, and thickening it with 
either flour or corn-starch. Season both the sauce and the fish well, 
then put a layer of the sauce in the bottom of a pan with a layer of 
fish over it. Fill in all the material in this way, and over the top 
place a layer of bread crumbs and a few small lumps of butter. Bake 
long enough to be sure it is hot all through and a delicate brown on top. 

Some scraps of fish, a few mashed potatoes, and a slice or two of 
rather dry bread do not look like very promising materials to get a 
dainty dish from; but flake the fish, crumb the bread and then mix a 
cup each of the fish, potatoes and bread together, season them well, 
and bind them together with an egg beaten with a little cream. 
Form the mixture into small cakes and fry in butter. 

The pieces may be mixed in the following manner: Flake them, 
and to each cupful add two lightly beaten eggs and a half cup of 
sweet cream. Put in cups and steam until firm. The cups in an egg 
poacher are very nice for this use. 

SHELL FISH 
Fried Oysters. — Drain and dry the oysters with a clean cloth and 
dip each one into crushed cracker crumbs. Have butter in the frying- 



166 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

pan very hot and deep enough to cover the oysters entirely. Drop 
them carefully into the frying-pan and fry quickly to a light 
brown. 

Instead of cracker crumbs a batter may be used, made from a 
cupful of the oyster liquor, a cupful of milk, three eggs, a little salt 
and flour enough for a thin batter. 

Oyster Fritters may be made by chopping the oysters fine and stirring 
into the same batter and frying in hot butter or lard — a spoonful of 
the mixture for a single fritter. 

Scalloped Oysters. — Take a buttered pudding-dish and cover the 
bottom with a layer of crushed crackers. Moisten this with a 
mixture of the oyster liquor and milk slightly warmed. Next put a 
layer of oysters, sprinkled with salt and pepper, with bits of butter 
laid over them. Fill the dish in this manner with alternating layers, 
letting the top be covered thickly with crumbs and with an egg beaten 
into the milk poured over it. Scatter small lumps of butter over the 
top, cover the dish and bake in the oven for half an hour, after which 
remove the cover long enough to brown the top. Serve hot. 

Escalloped Noodles and Oysters. — Make noodles according to direc- 
tions elsewhere; cut one-fourth of an inch wide and boil in salted water. 
Butter a baking-dish. Put in a layer of noodles, then a layer of 
oysters, cream sauce, and season with pepper and salt. Alternate the 
noodles and oysters. Finish with noodles on top. Then dot with 
bits of butter. Bake a light brown. Use one quart of oysters, one 
cup of cream sauce, one teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pep- 
per, one tablespoonful of butter. 

Fricassee of Oysters. — Cook one pint of oysters in hot butter until 
plump. Drain and keep the oysters hot, and add enough cream to 
the oyster liquid to make one cupful. Cook one level tablespoonful 
of corn-starch in one tablespoonful of hot butter. Add slowly the 
hot cream and oyster liquor. Season with one teaspoonful of lemon 
juice, saltspoonful of salt and dusting of white pepper. Pour the 
sauce into one beaten egg, add the oysters and heat one minute. 
Serve in paper cases. 

Curry of Oysters. — A small minced onion is fried in a teaspoonful of 
butter until yellow; into this is shaken a teaspoonful each of flour 
and curry-powder. This is diluted slowly with a gill each of oyster 
liquor and cream, and when hot and smooth two dozen oysters are 



COOKING RECIPES 167 

laid in and allowed to simmer until the beards begin to curl. Serve 
at once with steamed rice. 

Clam Pie. — Drain the liquor from twenty-five clams and carefully 
look over the clams. If they are very large cut them into halves. 
(Many people discard all but the digestible, fatty portion.) Add one- 
half pint of water or enough to make one large quart of liquor. 
Heat the clams and liquor to boiling point. Rub two tablespoonfuls 
of flour with two tablespoonfuls of butter, and stir it into the hot 
liquor. Cook until thick, then turn into a large, shallow baking-dish. 
Make a biscuit crust of one pint of sifted flour, two teaspoonfuls of 
baking-powder, one-half cupful of butter, one saltspoonful of salt 
and enough milk to make as soft a dough as can be easily handled. 
Roll into a thin crust and cut into long inch-wide strips. Lay these 
in lattice fashion across the top of the clam pie, pressing firmly to the 
pan at each end. (A pie made in this way will never run over. It will 
be ample crust if a large, shallow pan is selected, and the crust will be 
dry and flaky, not soaked and tough.) Bake in a moderate oven 
twenty minutes and serve warm with a napkin folded around the pan. 

Luncheon Clams. — Cook one dozen clams in one quart of stock 
(veal or chicken preferred). Season with one tablespoonful of butter, 
a dash of mace and one saltspoonful of mixed salt and pepper. 
When the clams are tender drain them. Melt one tablespoonful of 
butter and blend with it two tablespoonfuls of flour, add the strained 
clam stock. Boil and pour it over the beaten yolks of two eggs. 
Place on back of the range. Mince the clams and add them. Clean 
and butter the clam shells, fill with the mixture, dot with butter and 
fine cracker crumbs and bake brown. Squeeze a little lemon juice 
over each and serve. 

Clam Squares. — Season fifteen finely chopped soft clams with three 
dashes of cayenne and the juice of half a large lemon. Add to them 
the beaten yolk of an egg and enough finely rolled cracker crumbs to 
make a soft paste. Spread square, crisp wafers with this paste, lay 
them in a baking-pan and set in oven about ten minutes, or until very 
hot and the batter quite stiff. Serve hot. 

Buttered Shrimps with Eggs. — Pick over and wash one can of 
shrimps, drain, heat them in a saucepan with one tablespoonful of 
butter. Heat one-half cupful of milk; beat four eggs, add them to 
the hot milk; season with one saltspoonful of salt and three 'lashes 



i68 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

of pepper. Arrange strips of buttered toast on a hot platter, heap 
the hot shrimps on them and over the shrimps spread the cooked 
eggs. Serve at once. 

CHICKEN 

One thing usually available, either in town or country, is a fat, 
plump chicken. Just what value this fact possesses, perhaps, is not 
always appreciated, for few people realize how many delicious and 
wholesome dishes may be made with a good chicken for the founda- 
tion. A capon is to be preferred for roasting as well as for croquettes 
and dainty minces of every kind, when it is desirable to have a large 
quantity of breast meat. These birds bring considerably more per 
pound than other fowl; but the breast is nearly double the size and 
the flesh so much more tender, the proportion of flesh so much greater 
than in the ordinary fowl that it certainly pays to buy such a bird for 
roasting and for other purposes when it is desired to have a large 
quantity of breast meat. For soup and pot pie the ordinary fowl is 
just as good. For broiling and frying purposes a six months' bird is 
desirable. For fricassee, chicken a la marengo, supreme chicken, or 
any dish where the breasts and legs are used separately, take a year 
old chicken. 

Chicken a la Baltimore. — Singe, draw and wash a nice, plump chicken 
of about three pounds; cut into eight pieces; wipe them dry. Mix 
one even tablespoonful of salt with one teaspoonful of pepper and 
rub the seasoning over each piece, then dust with flour. Have one 
egg well beaten in a soup plate, dip each piece of chicken in this, roll 
in fresh grated bread crumbs; lay the pieces in a thickly buttered 
pan, pour over them one ounce of melted butter, cover with buttered 
paper. Place the pan in a medium hot oven and bake until tender — 
about forty-five minutes. Put the chicken feet for a minute into 
boiling water; take them out and remove the skin; put the feet, neck 
and giblets in a saucepan, cover with cold water; add half a tea- 
spoonful of salt; as soon as it boils up add one small onion; cover 
and cook gently for a hour, then strain the broth. When chicken is 
done make sauce as follows: 

Melt three level tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan; add three 
level tablespoonfuls of flour, stir and cook until it bubbles, then 
one and one-half cupfuls of the broth; season with half an even 



COOKING RECIPES 169 

teaspoonful of salt and a quarter of a teaspoonful of nutmeg. Cook 
five minutes. Then draw saucepan to side of the stove. Beat the 
yolks of two eggs with half a cup of cream and add slowly to the 
sauce, and just before serving add one tablespoonful of lemon juice. 
Strain the sauce onto a hot platter. Lay the pieces of chicken over 
the sauce and garnish with mock oysters. 

To Make Mock Oysters. — Take half a pint of canned corn or fresh 
green corn cut from the cob, add beaten yolks of two eggs, a quarter 
of a teaspoonful of salt, two tablespoonfuls of flour and the whites of 
the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Put a tablespoonful of butter in a 
frying-pan and when hot drop a small tablespoonful of the mixture 
into the fat in shape of an oyster; fry a light brown on both sides. 
Lay in a circle around the dish of chicken with thin, crisp slices of 
bacon. 

Spring Chickens Deviled Are Delicious. — Singe, draw and wash a pair 
of spring chickens and split through the back; season well with salt 
and pepper; crack the bones between the first and second joints and 
flatten them out nicely. Lay them in a roasting-pan with two thin 
slices of pork over the breast of each chicken, and pour two ounces 
of melted butter over them. Place in a medium hot oven and cover 
with buttered paper. Bake twenty minutes, basting frequently with 
their own gravy. Remove the paper, add one gill of hot broth and 
bake until the chickens are done, which will require about forty 
minutes. Serve with a white giblet sauce and French fried potatoes. 

Fried Chicken-The Easiest Way. — Cut the chicken into small pieces, 
roll each piece in a mixture of salt and pepper, and then in flour, and 
drop it into a kettle of boiling lard, just as you fry doughnuts. Do 
not put the chicken in until the lard boils, then keep it boiling, but be 
careful not to let it burn. Spread several thicknesses of brown paper 
on the bottom of the oven, and drain the chicken on that when it is 
cooked, then serve it hot. 

In preparing chicken in this way very little lard is used, and what 
is left may be made just as good as new. Let it stand until it can be 
drained from the sediment, then return it to the stove in a clean 
kettle and add several slices of raw potato. Remove the potato when 
it is done and the lard will be as nice for most purposes as if it had 
not been used for frying chicken. 

When frying chickens after they are of ordinary size dredge with 



170 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

salt, pepper and flour; place the pieces in a bread-pan with a liberal 
amount of grease fairly hot. Slice thick two or three onions over 
top of chicken; spread the slices all over the top; place a larger 
bread-pan over all, and put in the oven and keep a slow fire. The 
chicken will need turning but once. This way fries it much more 
thoroughly than the old way on top of the stove in a spider, and it 
never burns if a proper fire be kept. 

A New Way of Cooking Chicken. — Dress, joint and salt, as for frying, a 
young chicken. Place in a skillet and cover with good, sweet cream. 
Cover closely and cook, not too. fast, until done, turning when done 
on one side. It is delicious prepared in this way. 

To Pan Chicken. — Cut the chicken up as for fricassee. Put it into 
an ordinary baking-pan; dust with pepper, partly cover with water 
and place it in a very hot oven. Baste frequently. When it is half 
done add a teaspoonful of salt. When quite done dish and serve 
with a brown sauce made from the water in the pan and browned 
flour. 

Chicken Fricassee with Rice is a favorite dish among the French. 
The chicken is cut in the ordinary way, and into the pot with it are 
put a slice of onion, two slices of lemon and just enough water to boil 
it slowly. When the fowl is nearly done, half a cupful of rice that 
has been thoroughly washed and rinsed is put into the kettle and 
allowed to cook. There are people who prefer the fat of the chicken 
to give richness. If the chicken fat is desired it should not be 
removed from the meat. If, however, butter is preferred, the fat 
should all be taken off and butter added just before serving. 
Another way to incorporate the butter is to fry the uncooked meat in 
it without browning before it is boiled. When the fricassee is served 
rice and meat are placed together on the platter with the gravy. 

Chicken Hollandaise. — One and one-half tablespoonfuls butter, one 
teaspoonful finely chopped onion, two tablespoonfuls corn-starch, one- 
third cup finely chopped celery, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, one 
teaspoonful of lemon juice, few grains paprika, one cup cold cooked 
chicken cut into small cubes, the yolk of one egg, and one cup 
chicken stock. Cook butter and onion five minutes, add corn-starch 
and stock gradually. Add lemon juice, celery, salt, paprika and 
chicken; when well heated add yolk of egg slightly beaten, and cook 
one minute. Serve with buttered graham toast, 



COOKING RECIPES 171 

Giblet Sauce. — Cook the giblets in a very little water, chop very 
fine, then mix with a pint of boiling water, add to it the chopped 
giblets, the gravy in the pan, and thicken with corn-starch. Pour into 
the gravy boat, and when sent to the table drop in a piece of butter. 

Chicken Croquettes. — Fry a small onion in two tablespoonfuls of 
butter until it is slightly browned, then remove it and add to the 
butter a pint of freshly chopped chicken, a scant cupful of boiled 
rice, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, a little lemon peel, salt, 
thyme and white cayenne pepper. When thoroughly heated remove 
them from the stove and add three tablespoonfuls of cream and a 
well beaten egg. Mix it all thoroughly together, then let it stand 
until cold. When cold add another egg, or two, if the mixture is at 
all dry, for it must be as moist as it can be worked. Make it into 
little rolls about three inches long and an inch thick. Dip them into 
crumbs and fry them in the grease obtained from fried pork until 
they are a nice brown. If these rolls are hard to manage the mixture 
can be made into flat cakes instead. This makes a nice supper dish, 
or a side dish for an elaborate dinner. 

Chicken Panada is made in the following manner: Take a full 
grown chicken, clean it and allow it to cool, then put it into a kettle 
with three pints of boiling water, a teaspoonful of salt and a very 
little pepper. Boil slowly until the meat is almost ready to drop from 
the bones, then set away for three or four hours — chicken and broth in 
separate dishes — until it becomes cool. Every particle of grease is 
skimmed from the broth. Cut the white meat from the bones and 
carefully remove all the fat and skin. Chop the meat and afterward 
pound in a mortar until it forms a smooth paste. Add enough of the 
broth to this to make it thin enough to drink, and strain through a 
fine sieve and serve hot with thin slices of toast. This is very pala- 
table and nutritious, and sick people usually are fond of it. 

TURKEY 

Selecting the Toothsome Turkey. — In making the selection of the 
turkey for your Thanksgiving dinner, press hard with your thumb on 
the point of the fowl's breastbone before making the purchase. If 
the bone is pliable and yielding it is a safe prediction that the heart of 
that turkey has not fluttered with joy over having escaped the fate of 
adorning some one's table the last Thanksgiving. If, ont he contrary, 



172 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the bone is rigid and sharp, it is an equally safe prediction that some 
of the bird's progeny is on the market that day. 

In Making Chestnut Stuffing for Turkey, peel the chestnuts, scald them 
and remove the brown from underneath the skin. Put them into 
boiling water; cook slowly for about thirty minutes. Drain and then 
mash or chop. To one quart add a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoon- 
ful of butter and a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper. Stuff this into 
the turkey and finish as you would with other dressings. Truffles or 
mushrooms may be added. 

How to Bake a Turkey. — Ninety-nine cooks out of everyone hundred 
will bake a turkey with the back to the pan, but this is a mistake. 
The best way to prepare a turkey is to bake it with the breast down. 
The breast is turned to the bottom of the pan, and instead of being 
dry and tasteless when it is served is richly flavored and as sweet and 
juicy as one would care to have it. All the fine flavoring of the 
turkey, the juice of the dressing, and all the daintier juices flow down 
towards the breast of the fowl, and when the white meat is served you 
get the full benefit of every flavor added during the processes of pre- 
paring and baking the turkey in addition to the distinctive taste of 
the fowl itself. It is just as easy to cook a turkey in this way as in 
any other way. It is no trouble to arrange the fowl in the pan; if you 
desire to place the fowl on the table before carving it you will find 
that it will look quite as well as it would if baked in the usual way, 
and certainly it will taste much better. 

Turkey Salmi. — Cut bits of turkey, either light or dark meat, into 
pieces not more than an inch square. You may add bits of 
dressing and the minced giblets if liked. Take a cup of gravy 
from the turkey or of good stock thickened with browned flour, 
add a teaspoonful of chopped parsley, a tablespoonful of chopped 
onion; stir in the turkey, of which there should be a pint, add three 
hard boiled eggs sliced. Let all heat thoroughly. Serve on a 
platter surrounded by small triangles of bread fried a light brown in 
nice drippings. 

Turkey Molds. — Enough cold turkey or chicken to make two cup- 
fuls, chopped fine. Mix with it one cupful of bread crumbs, one 
tablespoonful of cream, one teaspoonful of minced or grated onion, 
two tablespoonfuls of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt and a salt- 
spoonful of pepper. Beat one egg, stir it into half a cup of milk and 



COOKING RECIPES 173 

stir into the turkey mixture; put in small buttered cups or muffin- 
tins and bake twenty minutes in a moderate oven. 

Turkey Cream. — Soak an eighth of a box of gelatin in a very little 
cold water for fifteen minutes, then beat into a pint of whipped cream. 
Add two cupfuls of the white meat of turkey, ground fine and salted 
with discretion (a quarter teaspoonful, probably). Beat well and pour 
into a ring mold and set in a cool spot for a few hours. Garnish 
with curled parsley. Chicken may be used in a like manner. 

MISCELLANEOUS POULTRY RECIPES 
Roast Duck with Apples.— Prepare a duck for roasting; wipe dry, 
rub with two teaspoonfuls salt and half a teaspoonful pepper mixed, 
inside and out, and lay in a baking-pan; wipe a dozen small sour 
apples with a wet cloth, cut out the cores without breaking the apples 
and arrange them around the duck; put the pan in a hot oven and 
quickly brown the duck, then moderate the heat of the oven and con- 
tinue the cooking for about twenty minutes, or until the apples are 
tender, but not broken. After the duck has begun to brown add a 
teacup of boiling water and baste both duck and apples every five 
minutes until they are done. Serve on the same dish. 

Indian Hash. — Chop fine sufficient cold roasted duck, chicken or 
turkey to measure one pint. Cut a good sized onion into very thin 
slices. Pare, core and chop fine one apple. Put two rounding table- 
spoonfuls of butter into a saucepan, add the onion and apple, heat 
until brown, then add not more than an eighth of a teaspoonful of 
powdered mace, one-half of a level teaspoonful of salt, a scant tea- 
spoonful of flour and a rounding teaspoonful of sugar; mix and add 
one-half of a pint of stock or water; now add the meat and stir con- 
stantly until smoking hot; then stand over hot water for twenty 
minutes. Add two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice and serve in a 
border of nicely boiled rice. 

Chicken Turnovers. — Mere scraps and crumbs of left-over turkey, 
chicken, duck or goose may be used and made into a delicious dish 
by the following recipe: Mince the meat fine; to a cupful add a salt- 
spoonful salt, a few dashes of pepper and one tablespoonful tomato 
catsup. Add a half cup of water to a half cup of stock or gravy (or 
use one cup of thin white sauce), and heat until it boils. If former is 
used thicken with a teaspoonful of browned flour rubbed into one 



, 74 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

teaspoonful butter, let it boil up a moment, then add the minced 
chicken and set over hot water until the batter is made. For the 
batter beat two eggs until light, mix with one and one-half cups of milk, 
two cups of flour, one-quarter teaspoonful salt and one teaspoonful 
baking-powder. Quickly fry into rather large pancakes, having them 
thin. When a light brown on both sides spread some of the chicken 
mixture on each and fold like a turnover. Serve hot on individual 
plates. 

Spiced Giblet Sauce. — Boil the giblets in three pints of water an 
hour, or till tender, with six cloves, six allspice, a tablespoonful of 
grated lemon peel, one-half a small onion chopped, a teaspoonful of 
shredded Chile pepper, a blade of mace and two saltspoonfuls of salt. 
Remove and mince the giblets, and keep hot. Rub together a table- 
spoonful of butter and two of hot browned flour and stir into the 
gravy, then strain; boil three minutes. 

Larded Guinea Fowls. — Choose two plump birds and after cleaning 
and trussing, dip the breasts in boiling water for a minute to stretch 
the skin. With a No. 10 larding needle fill the breast with rows of 
fine short lardoons of salt pork or bacon. Place a cut onion inside 
and roast rare about an hour and baste often. Have a brisk oven, 
then gradually cool off to a moderate heat. 

The guinea fowl can be recommended as not inferior to the turkey 
in flavor. By many epicures it is considered the most delicious and 
savory of all birds. It is a sort of connecting link between game and 
domestic fowls and runs wild in the south. The reason for its not 
being common in the markets in the north is because there is little 
demand for it owing to ignorance of its value as a meat. 

BEEF 

Beef Pie. — Lay in a pie dish a few thin slices of onion, then a layer 
of cold cooked beef cut very thin; dredge with a little flour, pepper 
and salt; fill the dish with these articles in alternate layers and add 
to them cold gravy. Scald and peel enough tomatoes to cover the 
top of the dish; have them of uniform size, and place them close 
together; spread over them some bread crumbs, salt, pepper and bits 
of butter; place in the oven and cook until the tomatoes are tender. 
Veal or mutton may be used in the same way. 



COOKING RECIPES 175 

Ragout of Beef. — Cut two pounds of the upper round of beef into 
inch squares; dredge them with salt and pepper and roll them in 
flour. Put into a saucepan some butter and some drippings, or a little 
suet, and let it fry out, using enough only to cover the bottom of the 
saucepan. When the grease is hot turn in the pieces of meat and let 
them cook until well browned on all sides. Watch and turn them as 
soon as browned. Then draw the meat to one side of the pan and 
add a tablespoonful of flour. Let the flour brown and add a cupful 
of stock or water and stir until it comes to the boiling point; then 
add a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper and half a tea- 
spoonful of kitchen bouquet, and one tablespoonful of chopped 
onion. Cover the saucepan and let it simmer, not boil, for an 
hour. If desired, a tablespoonful of wine can be added just before 
serving. 

Boeuf aux Liqueurs. — One and one-fourth pounds of beef, two small 
onions, two small carrots, eight potatoes, salt and pepper, one 
medium-sized turnip, one spray of parsley, one stalk of celery, one 
cupful canned tomatoes. The inside of the flank, a piece from the 
shoulder, or the tender side of the round may be used for this dish. 
If the meat is entirely lean have the butcher add a piece of fat. Cut 
the meat into inch squares, peel the onions and cut them into eighths. 
Scrape the carrots lightly, removing the peel or skin, and slice; peel 
and slice the turnip, cut the celery and parsley into inch lengths, 
place all these ingredients together in a granite kettle, add the 
tomatoes and sufficient water to two-thirds cover them, taking care 
not to have too much, as this is used in serving. Cover the kettle 
and stew very gently for two hours; add the peeled potatoes to cook 
during the last half hour, and when they are tender enough to pierce 
with a fork thicken the gravy. Mix a tablespoonful of flour in two 
tablespoonfuls of cold water and rub smooth; stir enough of this into 
the stew to thicken the gravy to the consistency of cream, add salt 
and pepper. Serve on a platter very hot. 

Frizzled Beef. — Have one pound of smoked or dried beef sliced 
very thin; put in a frying-pan, cover with cold water, set it on the 
back of the stove and let it come to a very slow heat, allowing it time 
to swell out to its natural size, but not to boil; stir it up and drain off 
the water; melt one ounce of sweet butter in a frying-pan and add 
the wafers of beef. When they begin to frizzle or turn up break over 



176 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

them four eggs; stir until the eggs are cooked; add three shakes of 
white pepper and serve on slices of buttered toast. 

Chipped Beef with Eggs. — Put the required quantity of dried beef 
through a meat chopper. For each two ounces allow a cupful of 
tomato liquor, one-fourth of a cupful of grated cheese, a little onion 
juice, a dash of cayenne, two tablespoonfuls of butter and three 
beaten eggs; stir all together and cook until the eggs are flaky. 

Hamburg Steaks. — Chop one pound of lean raw meat very fine, 
remove all the fiber and to the mince add one-half teaspoonful of 
onion juice, one-half teaspoonful of salt, one-fourth teaspoonful of 
pepper, a dash of nutmeg, one egg; form into small balls and flatten. 
Dredge them with flour and saute them in butter; place them on a 
hot dish and spread with maitre d'hotel butter, or make a thick 
brown sauce by adding a tablespoonful of flour to the butter used 
in the saute pan. Let it brown, then add slowly a little soup 
stock; season with salt and pepper, lemon juice or a little Worces- 
tershire sauce. Drop a teaspoonful of sauce on each cake without 
spreading it. 

Beef Hash. — Chop the meat fine, add an equal quantity of cold 
boiled potato chopped and a half teaspoonful of onion juice; mix 
thoroughly, brown in melted butter or drippings, add enough boiling 
water to moisten and cook for five minutes. Serve the hash on 
buttered toast. 

Beef Balls. — Mix with one can of potted beef a minced onion, one 
tablespoonful of boiled and chopped parsley, a half cupful of bread 
crumbs; season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and grated lemon peel; 
moisten with beaten egg, form into balls, roll in flour and fry. Serve 
with a brown gravy. 

Mock Duck. — Take a flank steak or two pounds of round steak 
and spread quite thickly with a dressing prepared from stale bread 
as for roast fowl, using sage, melted butter, salt and pepper for sea- 
soning. After spreading the meat with the dressing roll into a neat 
roll, and sew with a strong cord. Have the frying-pan or kettle 
hot, and put in the meat dry and sear well on both sides to prevent 
the juices from escaping. Then add one cupful of boiling water; 
cover closely and keep at the simmering point until the meat is 
tender. Add salt when about half cooked. When tender uncover 
and brown on both sides. Make a gravy by adding a small quantity 




THE LISTENING JOAN OF ARC. 

The soldier maid of France is seen here, amid her sheep, rapt in admiration as 
(according to her own firm belief and testimony) she gazes on those heavenly figures 
and listens to their voices, commanding her to leave her peaceful meadows and save 
her country from English dominion. 



COOKING RECIPES i 77 

of boiling water to the pan thickened with a tablespoonful of flour, 
which has been stirred smooth with a little cold water. 

If preferred potatoes, with jackets removed, may be added a half 
hour before the meat is done. Allow them to brown with the meat, 
and serve without the thickened gravy. 

Mock Duck. — Two pounds of sirloin steak, four slices of stale bread, 
six onions chopped fine, one teaspoonful of sage, one egg, teaspoonful 
of chopped salt pork. Soak bread until soft, add onion, pork, sage 
and lastly the well beaten egg. Spread on steak, roll, tie securely 
and bake one hour. Good hot or cold. 

Pot Roast — Take four or five pounds of shoulder clod or rump. 
Trim nicely and sear in the hot kettle as for mock duck. Add a 
small quantity of boiling water and cover closely, adding more boiling 
water as needed. Salt when the meat has cooked about an hour, 
and cook very slowly for four or five hours or until tender. Then 
brown and serve with a thickened gravy as for mock duck. 

Meat Pie. — If any cold meat is left from the roast a very nice meat 
pie may be made as follows: Chop meat fine and remove all skin. 
Season with pepper and salt and add one-half cup boiling water. 
Put the meat in a deep pie-pan and cover with a thin crust made as 
for baking-powder biscuit, only somewhat richer, and using no 
bottom crust. Bake until a rich brown. Turn the pie on a platter 
with the crust on the under side. Pour over all a sauce made in the 
following manner: Take one large tablespoonful of butter and make 
hot in a granite saucepan. Add one large tablespoonful of flour and 
cook smooth. Add very slowly boiling water until a creamy con- 
sistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper. 

Old-fashioned Pot Pie. — Old-fashioned pot pie is made by placing a 
layer of pork cut into small squares in the bottom of an iron pot; 
then comes a layer of sliced potatoes, then one of very thin dump- 
lings, and then more pork, potatoes and dumplings, with a layer of 
pork on top. Each layer must be seasoned properly as it is added. 
Cold water is then poured into the kettle until it just covers the top 
layer of pork, then a cover of rich biscuit dough is tucked down over 
the whole. The pot lid is fastened down so as to keep in all the 
steam, and the pot pie is allowed to cook for just two hours on the 
top of a very hot stove. 

Another Way to Make It is to take a pound each of lean pork and 



i 7 8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

lean beef, cut into dice and put into cold water over a moderate fire. 
When nearly done season it, add half a cupful of butter, two table- 
spoonfuls of rice, and six or eight potatoes cut into quarters. Pour in 
enough boiling water to cover all these ingredients, season it to suit 
the taste, and then add another pint of boiling water for the dump- 
lings. A few strips are cut from very rich biscuit dough and put in 
with the potatoes; then the remainder of the dough is tucked down 
over the whole like the cover of a chicken pie. The pot should be 
closely covered while this pie is cooking, and it is a good plan to 
spread a clean cloth over it before putting on the lid, thus preventing 
the steam from falling back in drops on the top crust. When this 
crust is done the pie is ready to serve. 

All kinds of meat may be utilized in making these pies. This is an 
exceptionally nice way to cook poultry that is no longer young. 
Then this recipe has another advantage in that more than one kind of 
meat may be used, and no one will dream that it was not done 
purposely. Bits of meat may be utilized in this way that would not 
have been sufficient for a meal if cooked in other ways. It may be 
flavored with onions or sweet herbs. 

MUTTON 

Boiled Shoulder of Mutton. — Procure two pounds and a half of 
shoulder. Wipe with damp cloth, tie up in a piece of cheese-cloth 
dusted with flour, place in a kettle and cover with boiling water. 
Cook rapidly for five minutes. Then add one teaspoonful of salt, 
dash of pepper, remove to the back of the stove and simmer for an 
hour; then add six roots of carrots boiled until tender and sliced into 
rounds. Make a paste of a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, 
stir into it one cupful of the boiling mutton stock, season with a pinch 
of mace and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, add to the carrots. 
Serve the meat in the center of the dish, the carrots around as 
garnish. 

Neck of Lamb Stew. — The neck of lamb, though not a favorite cut, 
is very rich in nutritious juices. To prepare the stew separate the 
lean meat carefully from the bones, rejecting all fat. Set the lean 
meat away and put the bones over to boil, adding cold water enough 
to cover them. Let them simmer for two hours. Then take the 
meat, dredge it with flour, season with one-half teaspoonful of salt 



COOKING RECIPES I79 

and a good dash of pepper; fry it with three small onions. Strain 
the stock from the bones, cover it, add a bay leaf, a spray of soup 
celery, two sprays of parsley, a sprig of thyme, half a teaspoonful of 
salt and two cloves. Simmer together for an hour; then skim out 
the bay leaf and other herbs, and serve the lamb with a garnish 
of dumplings made by adding a cupful of milk to a pint of flour, 
in which half a teaspoonful of salt and two level teaspoonfuls of 
baking-powder have been mixed. Drop these dumplings over the 
top of the lamb stew, cover the pot closely and then cook steadily 
without uncovering for ten minutes. 

Mutton Ragout — Cut the mutton into two-inch lengths (three cupfuls 
in all), season with a small teaspoonful of salt and one saltspoonful of 
pepper and dust lightly with flour; place two tablespoonfuls of butter 
in a pan, heat very hot and place in the meat; brown well, shaking 
often; draw the pan to the back of the range; lift the meat out with 
skimmer and place it on the serving dish; take one medium-sized 
onion and a sprig of parsley minced; cook for five minutes and add 
one cupful of milk; when hot add a saltspoonful of salt and two 
tablespoonfuls of flour stirred to a paste with a little cold water 
(about one cupful), cook for twenty minutes and stir frequently to 
prevent scorching; add a pint of chopped oysters ten minutes before 
serving, then pour it over the mutton and serve at once. The oysters 
must be drained well before adding to the gravy. Serve with grated 
cheese. 

VEAL 

Veal Ragout. — Cut three pounds of lean raw veal into inch square 
pieces; roll in flour and fry to a light brown in butter; add a quart of 
boiling water, one peeled and sliced onion, one carrot sliced, one tea- 
spoonful of salt, a dash of cayenne and three cloves; cover closely 
and simmer one hour. Turn from the kettle, strain the liquor and 
return this and the veal to the kettle; add more water and salt if 
necessary, and when it boils, enough peeled potatoes for dinner, and 
finish cooking. Serve in a warm dish with potatoes around the veal 
and with the liquor thickened for a sauce. 

Veal Pot Roast — Remove the bone from a fillet of veal and fill the 
cavity with a force meat made of a little minced salt pork and stale 
bread crumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper and a little thyme or 



,80 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

summer savory, and fasten securely with skewers or cord. Put some 
thin slices of salt pork over the fire in a Scotch bowl or frying-pan 
and when the fat flows freely brown the veal nicely on both sides; 
then cover with boiling water and simmer until tender, removing the 
cover half an hour before it is done. Serve on a hot platter with 
stewed green peas around it and accompanied by a brown sauce 
made with the boiling liquor. Parsley (minced) is a delicious flavor 
for both the stuffing and sauce. 

Stewed Knuckle of Veal. — Have the butcher cleave it in several 
places, and put it to boil with a small carrot, one turnip and one 
onion, all sliced, and a tablespoonful of well washed rice. Pour over 
it two quarts of boiling water; let it cook slowly two hours and a 
half. Half an hour before it is done add a teaspoonful of salt. 
When done remove the meat from the bone, lay it in a hot dish and 
make the following sauce to pour over it: Melt together one table- 
spoonful each of butter and flour; let them cook together one 
minute, stirring all the time; then take a half pint of the liquor in 
which the meat was cooked and pour quickly over the butter and 
flour; then stir in one beaten egg and a few drops of lemon juice, or 
a teaspoonful of chopped pickled cucumbers. The liquor left may 
be used for a rice soup for the next day. 

Shin of Veal Stew with Potatoes and Dumplings. — Use a shin of veal 
weighing about five pounds. Wash it and cut the meat from the 
bones into cubes of good size. Put three tablespoonfuls of butter or 
pork fat in a stew-pan and when melted add two tablespoonfuls each 
of minced onion, carrot and celery and cook slowly for ten minutes; 
then take out the vegetables and put in the meat, over which has 
been sprinkled three teaspoonfuls of salt and one-third of a teaspoon- 
ful of pepper. Stir over the fire until the meat browns, take it out 
and put in two heaping tablespoonfuls of flour; let it brown slightly, 
then add three pints of boiling water; let it come to a boil, then put 
in the meat and vegetables. Cover the stew-pan and set back where 
the contents will only simmer for three hours. At the end of that 
time add one pint of potato cubes, draw the pan to a hotter part of 
the stove and cook for half an hour longer. 

Veal Pate. — Chop three and one-half pounds of veal very fine with 
a slice of fat pickled pork; add six crackers rolled fine, three table- 
spoonfuls of melted butter, two beaten eggs, a tablespoonful of pul- 



COOKING RECIPES 181 

vcrfzed sage and a slightly heaped teaspoonful of pepper. Mix well, 
pack in a buttered, deep, square tin, rub the top over with melted 
butter and sprinkle with cracker crumbs. Cover, bake two hours, 
remove the cover and brown. Serve cdld in thin slices with a garnish 
of celery tops. 

Jellied Veal. — Take three or four pounds of veal, boil till very 
tender, pick it up very fine, put in a mold, season with pepper and 
salt to taste, put over a layer of hard boiled eggs sliced thin, add the 
water in which the veal was boiled, set in a cold place till ready for 
use, turn out and slice thin. 

Veal Scallop. — Two cups of cooked veal chopped very fine and 
seasoned with salt and pepper. Fry two teaspoonfuls of minced 
onions in two tablespoonfuls of butter until yellow; add two cupfuls 
of strained tomato, salt, pepper and a teaspoonful of sugar; when it 
boils add one-half a cupful of stale bread crumbs and stir smooth. 
Fill a buttered baking-dish with alternate layers of veal and tomato; 
sprinkle buttered crumbs over the top and bake twenty minutes. 

Veal Patties. — Make a cream sauce of half a pint of milk , one 
tablespoonful of flour and one tablespoonful of butter; remove from 
the fire and season with one-fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, salt- 
spoonful of pepper, one tablespoonful of mushroom catsup, add the 
beaten yolk of an egg and a pint of finely chopped cold cooked 
veal. Fill the empty pastry shells which have been baked, with the 
mixture, brown in the oven and serve hot with or without a tomato 
sauce. 

Creamed Veal Croquettes. — Cold veal chopped fine; season with 
pepper, salt, very little mace and a dash of grated lemon rind. Put 
together with thick white sauce, let stand until cold, roll in egg and 
cracker crumbs and fry in hot lard. 

Mock Chicken Olives. — Cut slices from the leg or round of veal and 
divide into small pieces suitable for serving. Make a dressing with 
one cup of bread crumbs, one teaspoonful each of chopped onion and 
summer savory, one tablespoonful melted butter and salt and pepper. 
Spread each piece of veal out flat, lay on one tablespoonful of the 
dressing, roll or fold together and fasten with small wooden skewers. 
Place in a roasting-pan, dredge with flour and pour over one cup of 
boiling water. Bake until the meat is perfectly tender and nicely 
browned on one side, basting often. Place the olives on a heated 



i8 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

platter and make a sauce with the contents of the pan, one cup of 
boiling water, seasoning, and a little browned flour. 

Cold Pressed Veal. — Boil shank of veal until very tender, salt and 
pepper. Remove veal from bone, chop fine, add two teaspoonfuls of 
mustard, one tablespoonful melted butter. Place in a dish, then pour 
on the stock; set away several hours. When thoroughly chilled slice 
and serve. 

Veal Sausage. — One pound lean veal, one-half pound fat salt pork. 
Chop and grind as you would sausage meat. Add salt, pepper, sage 
— a pinch of each. The result will be a delicious sausage, far prefer- 
able to veal or pork cooked separately. 

PORK 

Ham and Eggs in a New Dress. — A good dish to serve when fresh 
meat is not to be had is ham and eggs in a new dress. Boil the eggs 
twenty minutes, then remove the shells and cut a thin slice from 
each egg so it will stand upright. Then remove the yolks, grate 
them and put them where they will keep hot. While the eggs are 
boiling, boil some bits of ham, cut into dice, unless same is already 
boiled. This is chopped fine, when done, seasoned and made into a 
dressing by the addition of bread crumbs and raw eggs. The eggs 
are stuffed with this mixture, then a rich cream gravy is made and 
poured over them and the grated yolks sifted over all. The dish is 
then set in the oven until the eggs have become thoroughly heated 
through. 

San Juan Ham and Eggs. — Boil one coffeecupful of rice. When 
done drain and have broiled five small slices of ham (or bacon, if pre- 
ferred), arrange the ham in center of platter with border of rice and 
then a row of deviled eggs. 

Creamed Potatoes and Ham. — Pour one cupful and a half of boiling 
water over one quart of sliced potatoes; add an even teaspoonful of 
salt and cook until tender, adding a little more boiling water if 
needed. When cooked stir in one cupful of rich milk, one table- 
spoonful of butter and one and one-half cupfuls of cold boiled ham, 
cut in very small pieces or chopped. Cover and let simmer gently 
for five minutes and serve, sprinkling half a saltspoonful of white 
pepper over it after it is in the dish. 



COOKING RECIPES 183 

Potted Ham. — Mince some ham, mixing lean and fat together, 
pound in a mortar and season with cayenne, mace and mustard. Put 
it in a dish and place in the oven for half an hour. Afterward pack 
into pots or little stone jars. This will be a convenient mixture to 
serve at luncheons. 

Ham Has a Much Better Flavor if it is boiled for an hour, and then 
baked two hours, with brown sugar sprinkled over it for the last 
fifteen minutes. 

Pork Cakes. — Chop raw, fresh pork very fine, add salt, pepper, one 
chopped onion, half as much stale bread crumbs as there is meat, 
soaked until soft, two well-beaten eggs and a teaspoonful of finely 
powdered sage; mix well together; make in little oblong cakes and 
fry in boiling lard. Serve with sliced lemon if you like it. 

Sausage. — First buy the sausage in bulk, mold it in shape with 
spoon or cut in slices; put it in a covered baking-pan, and put in the 
oven with rather a gentle heat. Let it cook not less than half an 
hour, turning it once to insure its cooking evenly. It will be better if 
you cook it slowly and longer. When properly done it will be cooked 
delicately all through with no crust, but so tender as to almost melt 
in the mouth. If you will once try this way of cooking sausage you 
will never go back to the frying-pan, sputtering grease all over the 
stove. 

Creamed Bologna. — Get the small size, not more than an inch in 
diameter; steam for half an hour; remove skin; cut in finger 
lengths; divide these in quarters lengthwise, place on platter and 
pour over them a plain white sauce. 

Apple Garnish. — Take four nice flavored apples, slice two of them; 
after paring, cut two into eighths, remove cores. Fry with the 
sausage until a delicate brown. Put sausage in middle of the platter 
and the apples around them. 

BREAKFAST DISHES 

Breakfast Novelty. — Chopped cold meat well seasoned, wet with 
gravy if convenient. Put it on a platter, then take cold rice made 
moist with milk and one egg, season with pepper and salt. If not 
sufficient rice add powdered bread crumbs; place this around the 
platter quite thick; set in oven to heat and brown. Makes a delicious 
breakfast dish. 



i8a PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Breakfast Sandwiches. — Toast ten very thin slices of bread and 
butter them. Build the toast in sandwich form by placing a slice of 
broiled bacon between two slices of the toast. Mince one cupful of 
cooked beef or chicken quite fine and heat it in two cupfuls of 
seasoned gravy or cream sauce. Mask the top of the sandwiches 
with this and serve on warm breakfast plates. 

Senator Hanna's Hash. — Take equal portions of tender boiled corned 
beef and mealy boiled potatoes. Cut the potatoes into small cubes 
and the meat as fine as possible. Mix thoroughly with these a small 
onion, chopped very fine; a slice of onion is often sufficient. Butter 
a hot frying-pan and turn into it the chopped materials. Press into 
the center of the mass a clove of garlic, wrapped in a piece of salt 
pork or mild cured bacon. Set over a moderate fire, cover and let 
cook, adding a small quantity of water, if moist hash is preferred. 
When heated through, stir, remove the garlic and give the whole 
round shape. Let stand in the oven until browned underneath, then 
carefully slide on a serving-dish. While the hash is cooking cut one 
or two Bermuda onions into thin slices and fry until crisp in deep fat. 
Use these as a garnish for the hash (or omit, if preferred). Serve 
with lemon quarters. 

West Indian Hash. — Put into a stew-pan slices of mutton or beef, 
with some good stock. The meat must be free from fat, gristle or 
skin. Season with a slice of lemon without rind or seeds, salt and 
pepper. Cover and simmer, being careful not to let it boil. Rub 
smooth in a dish the grated yolks of two hard boiled eggs and add 
one large teaspoonful of mustard, and thin with gravy from the 
pan. Pour into the pan, take out the lemon and allow the hash 
and sauce to stew together for five minutes. Serve at once. 

German Hash. — One cupful each of chopped boiled or roast beef, 
chopped tart apples and chopped boiled potatoes, one teaspoonful 
salt, a pinch of cayenne pepper. Put three tablespoonfuls of butter 
or drippings in a frying-pan; when it is hot add one small onion 
chopped very fine and cook a few minutes, but do not let it brown; 
then add the other ingredients and stir often over a hot fire until 
partly brown. Serve very hot. 

Indian Sandwiches. — To two parts of cooked veal or chicken allow 
one part of cold boiled tongue, and to each cupful of the mixture, 
measured after putting through a chopper, add one tablespoonful of 



COOKING REICPES 185 

melted butter, one teaspoonful of essence of anchovy and one-half 
teaspoonful of lemon juice; butter and cut the bread as directed, 
toast each slice golden brown, spread with the filling while hot and 
put together. Serve cold. 

Meat or Fish Timbales. — Mince the odds and ends of fish or meat, 
add an egg, seasoning, some sauce or gravy, fill your timbale molds, 
set them in a pan of hot water and bake. Turn out on a platter and 
pour tomato sauce over. 

Casserole of Rice with Calves' Brains. — Make a cupful of gravy from 
the bones and stuffing of a roast chicken; cool and skim it. Soak a 
cup of rice two hours in two cupfuls of cold water. Drain this off, 
put the rice into a porcelain-lined kettle with the gravy previously 
heated to the boiling point and a cupful of hot water. Season with 
salt and pepper and cook until tender, shaking the pan to keep it 
from sticking. When the rice is nearly dry make a mound of it in 
the middle of a dish. Sprinkle it with grated cheese and brown. 
Boil the calves' brains ten minutes. Blanch in cold water, dry them 
and beat them up with an egg, pepper and salt and a very little flour. 
Fry by the spoonful in hot fat, drain and lay around the rice. 

Casserole of Rice and Meat. — Boil one cup of rice until tender. Chop 
very fine half a pound of any cold meat, season highly with half a 
teaspoonful of salt, half a saltspoonful of pepper, one saltspoonful of 
celery salt, one teaspoonful of finely chopped onions, the same 
amount of finely chopped parsley and one saltspoonful each of thyme 
and marjoram. Add one beaten egg, two tablespoonfuls of fine 
cracker crumbs and moisten with hot water or stock enough to pack 
it evenly. Butter a mold, line the bottom and sides half an inch deep 
with rice, pack in the meat, cover closely with rice and steam forty- 
five minutes. Loosen it around the edge of the mold, turn it upon a 
platter and pour over it a rich tomato sauce. 

TRIPE 

Tripe Should Be Soaked for Several Hours, then scraped clean, put into 
salted water, and it should be simmered two or three hours until it is 
like a jelly. Drain off the water and put aside the tripe until ready 
to use. Put a tablespoonful of butter into a saucepan, and when hot 
add a teaspoonful of flour and cook for a few minutes, but do not 
brown; then add slowly one cupful of milk and stir until smooth; add 



1 86 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

half a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper and half a teaspoonful of 
onion juice; then add one cupful of the boiled tripe, stir until the 
tripe is heated and serve immediately. 

Tripe with Brown Gravy. — Cut the tripe into small pieces, roll in flour 
and fry in hot lard; pour off part of the fat, and of the remainder 
make a rich brown gravy; pour over the tripe. This is acceptable to 
serve with baked potatoes. An excellent fricassee can also be made 
of tripe. Make a cream sauce with a tablespoonful each of flour and 
butter and a cupful of milk; cut the tripe into slices and season with 
salt, pepper and lemon juice; then brown and butter. Turn the 
sauce over it, simmer for five minutes and serve with small boiled 
potatoes. 

Tripe Fried in Batter. — Beat one egg slightly, add four tablespoonfuls 
of water, one tablespoonful of vinegar, half a teaspoonful of salt, a 
few shakes of pepper and flour enough to make a drop batter. 
Wipe the tripe dry, cut in two-inch pieces, dip in the batter, and fry 
in deep, hot fat. 

SQUIRRELS AND RABBITS 

Squirrel Pot Pie. — Clean and cut into neat pieces three small or two 
large squirrels; roll in flour and brown in bacon fat (using a slice of 
bacon), then draw to one side of the saucepan and fry brown a small 
minced onion in the remaining fat. Add quarter of a lemon sliced 
thin, one and one-half teaspoonfuls of salt, one-third as much pepper 
and one-third cupful of sharp cider; pour on boiling water to cover; 
cover closely and stew an hour. Make a nice biscuit dough and cut 
into dainty rounds, lay on top of the squirrel and boil fifteen minutes, 
covered closely. Pile the meat in the center of a hot platter, arrange 
the dumplings around it, thicken the gravy and pour over the whole, 
then send to the table. 

Young Rabbit or Squirrel Pie. — Wash and wipe dry two young 
squirrels or rabbits; melt two ounces of butter in a saucepan, add two 
minced shallots, a half teaspoonful of minced marjoram, a pinch of 
thyme, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Cut up the rabbits neatly, 
roll them in two level tablespoonfuls of flour in which a teaspoonful 
of salt and a saltspoonful of white pepper have been mixed; put them 
into the frying-pan and brown lightly and quickly in the seasoned 
butter, add a cupful of chopped celery and turn in a pint of well-. 



COOKING RECIPES 187 

seasoned, thin, brown gravy from either veal or chicken, the juice of 
half a lemon and a saltspoonful of grated orange peel. Let simmer 
covered, for twenty minutes, turning the joints once in awhile. Have 
previously prepared a nice flaky crust; roll a thin strip and fit it 
around the inside of an enameled pan (do not line the bottom), place 
the hot rabbit neatly in, mixing through it a cupful of chopped mush- 
rooms and a dessertspoonful of minced parsley; pour over the hot 
gravy, of which there should be sufficient to nearly cover the meat; 
immediately place on the upper crust and trim to fit neatly, first 
having moistened the rim of the pastry lining, press lightly to make 
the edges adhere, decorate with a few diamond-shaped pieces of 
pastry moistened on the under side and placed regularly about the 
edge, or use instead a twisted strip. Cut out a small round from the 
center and insert a thick, white paper funnel to serve as a vent for 
the steam and keep the gravy from running over the edge, put with- 
out delay in a brisk oven and bake until a light brown. This may be 
served hot or cold. 

Baked Rabbit Slew. — Wash and cut the rabbit into small pieces. Put 
a large tablespoonful of pork drippings in a spider over the fire. 
When hot put in the rabbit and brown. Then cover with boiling 
water, add a small onion cut fine, half a teaspoonful of salt, a stalk of 
celery cut into small bits, a slice of raw salt pork cut into inch pieces, 
a saltspoonful of pepper, two tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup. Cover 
and have the oven hot enough for it to simmer, not boil fast. 

Spiced Rabbit. — Thoroughly clean a young rabbit; soak in cold 
salted water one hour; cut into joints. Pour mild vinegar over, let it 
remain over night. Then put two ounces of fresh butter in a granite 
stew-pan; add a sliced onion, one bay leaf, six peppercorns, a stalk 
of celery and four cloves. Lay the pieces of rabbit on this. Add 
part of the vinegar the meat was soaked in and enough water to 
cover. Stew until tender. Brown two tablespoonfuls butter with 
two of flour and add to the gravy. Add a little more salt if needed, 
but each piece of meat should be sprinkled with salt before it is 
cooked. 

Roast Belgian Hare. — Buy a young hare. It will come skinned; have 
the butcher chop off the feet. Singe the animal and put it into clear, 
cold, salted water, and let it remain several hours, or else rub the 
flesh well with salt and cleanse thoroughly. Wipe dry and rub inside 



!88 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and out with salt and dust lightly with pepper. Make a bread crumb 
stuffing, flavoring it with sage or celery. Sew the filling in and rub 
the outside skin with soft butter and flour. Truss and place in a 
roasting-pan with a pint of boiling water, cover closely and roast two 
hours. Baste often and remove cover to brown at the finish. 
Garnish with lemon slices. 

SAUCES FOR MEAT AND FISH 

Egg Anchovy Sauce. — Cook together a tablespoonful each of butter 
and flour and a teaspoonful of anchovy paste until all bubbles, pour- 
ing upon them a halt pint of milk. Stir until the sauce thickens, then 
add to it a hard boiled egg chopped fine and one-fourth teaspoonful 
of salt. Pour over the fish and send to table. 

Butternut Sauce. — One tablespoonful of butter; melted in stew-pan; 
add one tablespoonful flour and stir to a smooth paste; add one-half 
teaspoonful salt, one-half teaspoonful paprika and two teacupfuls milk; 
boil four or five minutes, stirring constantly. Add three-quarters of 
a cup of butternut meats and one teaspoonful of Worcestershire 
sauce. A delicious sauce for fish. 

Beurre Noir. — Put two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan; 
when melted add one tablespoonful of vinegar, one tablespoonful of 
chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of lemon juice, one-half teaspoon- 
ful of salt, one-quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper; boil up once and 
turn over the fish. 

Onion Sauce. — Put the required number of peeled white onions in 
cold water and let them come to aboil; then pour the water off, cover 
with boiling water and let simmer five minutes. Then pour off the 
water and renew again. Add a little salt to each water. When the 
onions are done, drain them well and rub through a sieve and add to 
them a cream sauce. This sauce may be served with boiled fish or 
boiled meats. 

Brown Sauce. — To a pint of boiling milk add half a teaspoonful of 
salt and two tablespoonfuls of browned flour (rubbed to a smooth 
paste in one-fourth cup of cold milk). Cook rapidly and stir continu- 
ously until thickened, then allow it to cook more slowly for ten 
minutes. 



CHAPTER X 
PICKLES, SALADS, VEGETABLES, ETC. 

Curing Meats — Pickles and Catsups — Salads and Salad Dressings — All Kinds 
of Vegetables — Rice Prepared in Various Ways — Macaroni and Spa- 
ghetti — Mushrooms — Breakfast Cereals — Egg Suggestions — Food Value 
of Eggs Compared with Meat — Egg Recipes — Cheese — Biscuits and Rolls. 

Pickles are easy to prepare and are a stimulant to the appetite. 
They also add variety to the bill of fare. Catsup is another article 
which can be made at very small cost and always comes in handy for 
housekeepers. 

The different combinations of salads are becoming very numerous, 
they being susceptible to economic preparations, or extravagance to 
suit the epicurean taste. 

Fresh vegetables when in season furnish very wholesome dishes, 
and this chapter gives many valuable suggestions and recipes that 
will please the vegetarian. 

Eggs should be broken separately into a saucer or cup, as one bad 
one will spoil all the others. 

"Eggs beat with a knife will cause sorrow and strife; 
Beat with a spoon will make heavy soon; 
Beat with a fork will make light as a cork." 

CURING MEATS 

Hams, 100 Pounds. — Salt, eight pounds; sugar, one and one-half 
pounds; saltpeter, one and one-half ounces; water, four gallons. 
Pack in a tub when cold, flesh side up, and pour the pickle over them. 
Allow them to lie in pickle, if the hams are large, six weeks. Dry 
and smoke to the taste. Before using the pickle boil it well and skim, 
and apply when cold. Keep the hams covered with pickle. 

Beef, 100 Pounds. — Same pickle as hams, and allow to lie in pickle 
four weeks. Take up, drain and hang up to dry, and when dried rub 

189 



190 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

cayenne pepper over the dried beef. Wrap up the beef in strong 
manila paper, and tie securely to keep out flies and meat worms, and 
hang up in a moderately dry place. 

Sausage, 48 Pounds. — Salt, three-quarters of a pound; pepper, one 
and one-quarter pounds; sage, one pint. Cut in small pieces equal 
parts of lean and fat meat, or more lean than fat if preferred, 
mix the salt, pepper and sage thoroughly through the meat, and cut 
fine by a machine. Bake in balls or pack in skins or in muslin bags. 
Sausage can be kept for a long time if partially fried and packed hot 
in deep tin cans. At once cover the sausage up with the hot fat 
left in frying the sausage. Three things to keep sausage in this 
manner are essential: First, narrow, deep tin cans; second, pack 
the sausage tight and hot; third, keep the sausage covered with the 
grease. When the cans are cold pour a little hot grease again over 
the sausage and that will fill all the air spaces and keep the air out. 
Earthen jars, when used, will allow the sausage to mold. To open 
the tin cans set in hot water, and if the cans are made as they should 
be, without tops, as soon as the fat melts invert at once over a dish 
and the sausage will slide out. 

Take the Whole Side, after the ham and shoulder have been 
removed, and rub it with the following mixture: For each ioo pounds 
of meat seven pounds of salt, one pound of brown sugar and four 
ounces of saltpeter, finely powdered and mixed together. Spread 
this compound on the flesh side of the meat only, and rub it well. 
Lay another piece on the first one, treat it in the same manner and 
so proceed until all the meat is salted. Let it remain in this com- 
pound for the three weeks; it will then be ready to hang up to dry or 
to smoke, when it should be wiped off. 

To Make a Simple Lard Press. — This plan will press lard better than 
any screw press on the market, and it need not cost any farmer a 
cent, as the parts which go to make it up are such as are in common 
use on the farm and in the kitchen. First get a tin bucket, cylin- 
drical in shape, that is, one which is as large at the bottom as at the 
top; then with an awl punch holes around the side about one-half 
inch apart and from the inside out. Next get a bread-pan large 
enough for the cylinder to stand in; set this pan on a platform of 
two-inch planks and incline a little to the front. Now take tough inch- 
board and with an axe chop the corners rounding so as to easily fit 



COOKING RECIPES 191 

inside of bucket; on the top of this lid stand a two-by-four about a 
foot long, and on the top of this use a lever about twelve feet long. 
The short end of it must be under some raised building or other 
heavy object near which the press should be set, for the end must be 
held solid so as to bring all the pressure on the two-by-four on lid. 
Raise the platform high enough from the ground so as to admit a 
receiving vessel; put your "cracklins" in the press as hot as possible, 
as lard will not press out well when slightly cold; press down on long 
end of lever gently at first, then more firmly until on a level; now sit 
down on same and let lard drain a little. You will find on examining 
the cake pressed that it is good for animal food only, as every 
particle of fat will have been extracted. 

PICKLES AND CATSUPS 

How to Keep Pickles from Molding. — Drop a few slices or perhaps a 
few gratings of horseradish on the top of pickles in each jar. This 
addition adds piquancy to cucumbers and preserves their crispness. 

Tomato Catsup. — Cut one peck of clean, sound, ripe tomatoes in 
halves, boil them in a lined saucepan until the pulp is all dissolved, 
then strain them well through a hair sieve, and set the liquor on to 
boil, adding one ounce of salt, one ounce of mace, one tablespoonful 
of black pepper, one teaspoonful of red pepper, one teaspoonful of 
ground cloves, five of ground mustard; let them all boil together for 
five or six hours, and stir them most of the time. Let the mixture 
stand eight or ten hours in a cool place, and add one pint of vinegar, 
and then bottle it; seal the corks and keep in a cool, dark place. 
The ounce of mace could be omitted; some like it in catsup and some 
do not. 

Green Tomato Sauce. — Wash and remove stem, cut across and then 
in quarters; drain and add the juice to sugar. Take half a pound of 
sugar to each pound of tomato, one lemon, a teaspoonful each of 
whole cloves, cinnamon and piece of ginger root an inch long to each 
two pounds. Wash the lemons, shave the yellow rind, pare and 
reject the white part, then slice the lemon thin and remove all seeds. 
Put the sugar and juice from tomatoes and lemons and spice in por- 
celain kettle and just enough water to melt sugar. Add the lemon 
shavings and tomato; cook gently until tomato is clear, skim out the 
fruit, boil the sirup down a little, fill the cans and seal. 



i 9 a PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Lemon Tomato Catsup (new). — Prepare and cook the tomatoes in the 
usual way. Strain and add to each quart of pulp a third of a cup of 
lemon juice, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a teaspoonful or two, as 
preferred, of celery salt. Some kinds are stronger than others. Seal 
while hot. This is the best and most healthful catsup, as vinegar dis- 
agrees with some stomachs. 

Quince and Tomato Preserves. — Pare, quarter, core and cut into cubes 
the quinces, then weigh. Scald and peel an equal weight of plum 
tomatoes. To every pound of fruit take three-fourths of a pound of 
sugar and two-thirds of a cupful of water. Boil the sugar and water 
to a thin sirup, then add the fruit and cook till tender, but not 
broken; skim the fruit out, filling glass jars. Boil the sirup down for 
ten minutes; fill up the jars with it, then seal at once. 

Tomato Cheese (new). — Scald five pounds of ripe tomatoes, remove 
the skin and place in aluminum pan or kettle with a pound of cored 
and quartered apples; add two and a half pounds of white sugar, a 
small teaspoonful pounded ginger and the juice of a lemon. When 
well cooked place in jars and seal for winter use. 

Chili Sauce. — One dozen large ripe tomatoes, four large onions, 
three green peppers, one red pepper, two teaspoonfuls of whole 
allspice, one teaspoonful of fine broken stick cinnamon, one teaspoon- 
ful white cloves, one small root of green ginger, one cupful of vine- 
gar, two tablespoonfuls of salt, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one 
saltspoonful of cayenne. Chop the onions, tomatoes and peppers 
very fine, tie the whole spices in a thin muslin bag and boil all 
together for an hour. Bottle and seal at once. 

Oyster Catsup. — One quart of oysters, one tablespoonful of salt, one 
teaspoonful of cayenne pepper and same of mace, one teacupful of 
cider vinegar, one teacupful of sherry wine. Chop the oysters and 
boil in their own juice with a teacupful of vinegar, skimming the scum 
as it rises. Boil three minutes, strain through a hair cloth; return 
the liquor to the fire, add the wine, pepper, salt and mace. Boil 
fifteen minutes and when cold bottle for use, sealing the corks. 

Sv/eet Apple Chutney. — Peel and core one and a quarter pounds of 
green apples; cut them in slices lengthwise. Clean and pick one-half 
pound of sultanas and one-quarter pound of Valencia raisins; then 
stone and slice the latter in three strips. Peel and cut up one ounce 
of green ginger and one-quarter ounce of garlic; then pound to a 




Courtesy of Breed? 



A TYPICAL NEW ZEALAND APIARY. 



New Zealand is a country of surprises— one of the greatest mutton producers in the 
world, high in the science of dairying, and now it appears she is in the front rank as a culti- 
vator of bees. 




Courtesy of Breeder's Gazette 



FEEDING THE POULTRY. 



Although woman's work upon the farm seems never done, there is no one of her labors 
from which she derives more pleasure and solid comfort than in the feeding of the chickens 
and turkeys. 




PLENTY OF AIR AND SUNSHINE. 

These children may not know the appearance of a bath-tub or a comb, but, at least, 
thev have plenty of air and sunshine, and probably sufficient exercise to keep them in 
condition. Each face and pose is a study. The picture is from life. How do you read 
the characters? 



COOKING RECIPES 193 

pulp in a mortar. Husk one ounce of white mustard seed. Boil one 
pound of best sugar with half a cupful of white wine vinegar to a 
thick sirup. Lay the sliced apples in a china or enameled dish, 
cover them with one-sixteenth of a pound of salt and let them stand, 
covered, for fifteen hours or over night, after which pour over them 
one-half cupful of white wine vinegar and let them steam and simmer 
until tender, but not broken. Do not mash them. Let the apples 
get cold, then add the cold sirup and all the other ingredients; add 
also one-eighth ounce of powdered chillies and one-sixteenth of a 
pound of salt (making one-eighth pound fine table salt used altogether 
in the recipe). Mix carefully and thoroughly together, pack into 
small jars, pressing out all the air bubbles, cork securely or cover one- 
quarter inch deep with melted paraffin and let stand six weeks before 
using. It is absolutely necessary to use perfectly enameled utensils 
in making the chutney, for if the enamel is broken the iron under the 
surface will spoil the color, and if tin comes in contact with acid it 
makes the food poisonous. 

Pickled Peaches.— Eight pounds of pared peaches cooked in a sirup 
made of six pounds of sugar, one and one-half quarts of vinegar, to 
which is added one-half pound of seeded raisins and one-quarter 
pound of stick cinnamon. When the peaches are done put three 
cloves and three cassia buds in each peach, unless the peach is too 
small, then use your own judgment. The peaches are cooked suffi- 
ciently when transparent. 

Pickled Walnuts. — Gather the walnuts when well grown, but still soft 
enough to be pierced through with a needle. Run a heavy needle 
through them several times and place them in strong brine, using as 
much salt as the water will absorb. Let them remain in brine for a 
week or ten days, and change the brine every other day; then drain 
the nuts and expose them to the air until they have turned black. 
Pack them in jars and cover them with boiling hot vinegar prepared 
as follows: To a gallon of vinegar add an ounce each of ginger 
root, mace, allspice and cloves and two ounces of peppercorns; boil 
them together for ten minutes and strain out the nuts. Let them 
stand a month before using. 

Preserved Citron. — Slice the citron crosswise in slices one-third of an 
inch thick. Peel and remove the seeds. Cut citron into one-third 
inch dice. Place thern in a porcelain kettle. Add one cupful of salt 



i 9 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

to each five pounds of fruit. Cover with cold water and let stand 
over night. Drain and cover with fresh cold water. Soak two hours, 
changing the water four or five times. Dissolve one tablespoonful 
of pulverized alum in two quarts of boiling water, pour over citron 
and bring to boiling point. Drain. Prepare a sirup of two and one- 
half pounds of sugar and one and one-half quarts of boiling water 
Boil and skim. Add citron and simmer gently until clear and tender. 
Drain citron from sirup. Set in the sun for two hours to harden. 
To the sirup add the peel of one large lemon, using only the yellow 
rind shaved off as thinly as possible. Add the juice of two lemons 
and a small piece of green ginger root (two inches long) sliced in thin 
slices. Boil gently for twenty minutes. Set aside. When citron is 
hardened fill into glass jars and bring sirup to boiling point and 
strain it over citron. Treat watermelon in the same manner. 

Mangoes. — Take small green muskmelons or canteloupes. Cut a 
small square from the side of each one, and with a teaspoon scrape 
out all the seeds. Make a brine of one pint of salt to a gallon of 
water. Cover the mangoes with it while it boils. Let them stand 
two days; then drain them and stuff with two quarts of chopped 
cabbage, a cupful of white mustard seed, three tablespoonfuls of 
celery seed, two tablespoonfuls of salt, half a cupful of grated horse- 
radish. Pour boiling vinegar over them, having added to it one 
pound of sugar. 

Sweet Pickled Quinces are the equal if not the superior of any of 
the fruits prepared in this way. Choose finely flavored, juicy and well 
ripened fruit. Scrub well and remove all spots and decayed portions, 
but do not pare. Slice into rounds one-fourth inch in thickness, 
leaving in both core and seeds. Weigh the sliced fruit and to seven 
pounds allow three pounds of sugar, a pint of cider vinegar of medium 
strength and the following spices, which should be tied in a bag: 
one ounce stick cinnamon, one tablespoonful cassia buds, two table- 
spoonfuls allspice berries and one tablespoonful whole cloves. Cook 
the fruit, about a quart at a time, in sufficient water to cover until 
tender, then lift out carefully without breaking and place in a stone 
jar. The same water may be used for all, and when all are done add 
to the sugar, spices and vinegar, let boil, then pour over the fruit. 
Drain off the juice next morning, add spice bag, boil a few minutes, 
then pour over the fruit. Continue this for three successive morn- 



COOKING RECIPES 195 

ings. The last morning add the fruit and boil all together half an 
hour. Then can and seal. 

Pickled Red Cabbage. — Cut a sound cabbage into quarters, spread it 
on a large flat dish and sprinkle it with salt. Place in some cool 
corner for twenty-four hours and then drain off the brine and lay in 
the sun for two hours to dry, then cover with cold vinegar for twelve 
hours. Prepare a pickle by seasoning enough vinegar to cover the 
cabbage with a mixture of allspice, cinnamon and black pepper, 
putting a cup of sugar to every gallon of vinegar, and adding a tea- 
spoonful of celery seed to each pint. Pack the cabbage away in a 
stone jar; boil vinegar and spices five minutes and pour on hot. 
Cover and set away in a cool, dry place. This will keep for a 
month. 

Beet Relish. — One quart of finely chopped cabbage, one quart of 
chopped boiled beet, two cups of sugar, one cup of chopped onion, 
one cup of grated horseradish, one tablespoonful of salt, one tea- 
spoonful of black pepper and quarter of a teaspoonful of red pepper. 
Mix well with cold vinegar and keep well corked or sealed. 

Nasturtium Pickles.— Gather the nasturtium seeds when they are 
small and green, before the inner kernel becomes hard, remove the 
stems and let them stand in salted water over night — a level table- 
spoonful of salt to a pint of water. In the morning drain and pour 
over them cold fresh water, rinse well, pack in small bottles and pour 
over them boiling vinegar; cork. You may sweeten and spice the 
vinegar if you prefer. They may be used as a substitute for capers, 
or added to your other pickles — either cucumber or mixed pickles. 

Small Cucumbers. — Have the cucumbers of even size; rub them 
smooth with a cloth and place them in brine strong enough to float 
an egg. They will keep in the brine until wanted to pickle if desired. 
Soak the cucumbers in water for two days after taking them from the 
brine, changing the water once, and then scald in vinegar, or pour 
the boiling vinegar over them and let them stand in it two days 
before using. Put into each two quarts of vinegar, an ounce of 
peppercorns, a half ounce each of mustard seed and mace, a piece of 
horseradish, a piece of alum the size of a pea, and a half cupful of 
sugar; boil them together for ten minutes before straining it over the 
cucumbers. One pound of sugar may be added to the vinegar if 
sweet pickles are desired. 



196 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Chow-chow. — Cut into pieces one-half peck green tomatoes, two 
large cabbages, fifteen onions and twenty-five cucumbers. Mix them 
together and pack them in layers with salt; let them stand for twelve 
hours, then drain off the brine and cover them with vinegar and 
water and let them stand another twelve hours. Drain off the vine- 
gar and cover them with one and one-half gallons of scalding hot 
vinegar, which has been boiled a few minutes with one pint of grated 
horseradish, one-half pound of mustard seed, one ounce of celery 
seed, one-half ounce of ground pepper, one-half cupful of cinnamon 
and four pounds of sugar. Let them stand until perfectly cold, then 
add one cupful of salad oil and one-half pound of ground mustard. 
Mix them together and place in jars and seal. 

Mustard Pickles. — Take one quart small cucumbers, one quart large 
cucumbers sliced in rings, one quart green tomatoes (small), one 
quart button onions, one large cauliflower cut into small pieces, 
and four green peppers cut fine. Make a brine of four quarts of 
water and one pint of salt, pour over the vegetable mixture and let 
stand for twenty-four hours. After standing heat the mixture 
enough to scald it and drain in a colander. While this is scalding 
mix one cup of flour, six tablespoonfuls ground mustard, one table- 
spoonful turmeric powder, with cold vinegar enough to make a 
smooth paste; then add one cup of light brown sugar and also 
enough vinegar to make two quarts in all. Boil this until it thickens, 
stirring all the time; add the vegetables and cook until well heated 
through. This amount will make five quarts in all, and can be kept 
in Mason jars, or will keep in open jars if wanted for immediate use. 

French Pickle. — Three pints of washed, sliced green tomatoes, from 
which the blemishes and stem ends have been removed, one pint of 
peeled, sliced white onions and three pints of peeled, sliced cucum- 
bers. Place all in alternate layers in a stone jar and sprinkle salt 
between each layer, using one-half cupful in all. Let this stand 
twenty-four hours, then drain off the water which has drawn; mix 
with them quarter of an ounce of celery seed, one-eighth of an ounce 
of mace or cloves, or the two blended, one-half teacupful of white 
mustard seed, and one-quarter cupful of white peppercorns. Stir 
one-half tablespoonful of turmeric and one tablespoonful of ground 
mustard together, add water (three tablespoonfuls) and blend with 
the pickle as it is again laid in layers in the jar. Over all pour 



COOKING RECIPES 197 

one-half gallon or a little less of the best cider vinegar. There 
should be just enough to cover entirely. 

Bean Pickles. — Pick the beans when young and tender. String 
them, then boil them in salted water until they can be pierced with a 
fork. Drain them through a colander, pack them into a stone jar, 
add a few small pods of cayenne pepper, then cover with strong cider 
vinegar in which sugar has been boiled in the proportion of two tea- 
cupfuls of sugar to a quart of vinegar. 

Corn Pickle. — Chop one head of cabbage; sprinkle over it two 
tablespoonfuls of salt and let stand over night. Cut the kernels from 
twelve ears of corn, chop two peppers and mix both corn and peppers 
with the cabbage. Bring two quarts of vinegar to a boil, add one 
cup of sugar and a quarter of a pound of mustard, and pour over the 
corn and cabbage. When buying the mustard get the light-colored, 
high-grade stock, as the dark mustard spoils both looks and taste of 
the pickle. 

Pickled Cauliflower. — Two cauliflowers cut up, one pint of small 
onions, three medium-sized red peppers. Dissolve half a pint of salt 
in water enough to cover the vegetables, and let these stand over 
night. In the morning drain them. Heat two quarts of vinegar with 
four tablespoonfuls of mustard until it boils. Add the vegetables and 
boil for about fifteen minutes, or until a fork can be thrust through 
the cauliflower. 

Stuffed Peppers. — Select large, bell-shaped peppers. Remove and 
save the tops with the stems, and take out all the seeds. Stand the 
peppers upright in a large bowl, put a teaspoonful of salt in each, 
cover with cold water and allow to stand for twenty-four hours. The 
filling consists of two quarts of finely chopped cabbage, a half cupful 
of grated horseradish, a quarter pound of white mustard seed, three 
teaspoonfuls of celery seed, and two tablespoonfuls of salt. Put the 
mixture into the pepper, leaving room at the top of each for a small 
onion and a very small cucumber. Tie the tops on securely, put them 
in a jar and cover with cold vinegar. 

Uncooked Spanish Pickle. — Chop fine or put through a meat chop- 
per one large cabbage; peel and chop one dozen large cucumbers, 
chop one-half peck of green tomatoes, three green and two red 
peppers, and one quart of onions; mix'thoroughly and add one-half 
pint of salt. Let stand over night and press dry. Put one gallon of 



i 9 8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

strong vinegar in a kettle with one ounce of mustard seed, one table- 
spoonful of cinnamon and one of cloves, and one ounce of juniper 
berries tied in a bag; add two pounds of sugar. Let come to a boil 
and pour over the pickle. Seal and place in a cool, dry place- 
Delicious and original. 

Melange Pickle. — Chop one-half a good-sized white cabbage fine, 
sprinkle it with one-half cupful of salt, remove the seeds and core 
from one red pepper and six green peppers, chop them fine and cover 
them with salt. Let the cabbage and peppers stand one hour, then 
hand squeeze the cabbage dry and press all the water from the 
peppers by squeezing them in a sieve with a wooden spoon. Be 
careful to keep the liquid from the hands and from spurting into the 
eyes, for it would burn. Mix cabbage, peppers, one small teacupful 
of freshly grated horseradish, one ounce of whole cloves, one ounce of 
white mustard seed and a quarter of an ounce of celery seed. Place 
in a stone crock. Pour over one quart of cider vinegar, cover and 
keep in a cool place. 

Chopped Pickle. — One peck green tomatoes, one dozen large 
onions, four heads of celery; chop all fine, sprinkle with one cupful 
of salt and leave for twenty-four hours. In the morning drain and 
add one tablespoonful white mustard seed, one teaspoonful celery 
seed, one cupful sugar, six green peppers and two red ones chopped 
fine. Cover with vinegar and let all boil slowly for three hours. 

Sweet Tomato Pickle. — One peck of green tomatoes and six large 
onions, sliced. Sprinkle with one cupful of salt and let them stand 
over night. In the morning drain. Add to the tomatoes two quarts 
of water and one of vinegar. Boil fifteen minutes, then drain again 
and throw the vinegar and water away. Add to the pickle two 
pounds of light brown sugar, two quarts of vinegar, two tablespoon- 
fuls of clove, one of allspice, two of mustard, two of cinnamon and one 
teaspoonful of cayenne, or better still, one green pepper cut into inch 
pieces. Boil fifteen minutes, or until the tomatoes are tender. 

Green Tomato Pickle. — One-quarter peck of green tomatoes, sliced 
into a stone jar and sprinkled with one-quarter cupful of salt, divided 
between the layers. Next morning drain well and scald with vinegar 
and water, half and half. Drain a second time. Pack into a stone 
crock in alternate layers, with a mixture composed of six thinly sliced 
onions, one-quarter pound of white mustard seed, one ounce of celery 



COOKING RECIPES 199 

seed and three chopped red peppers, cores and seeds removed. Pour 
in sufficient scalding vinegar to cover well, and set aside for a few 
weeks before using. Cover well from the air. 

Piccalilli.— One peck of green tomatoes, one cup of salt, six small 
onions, one large head of celery, two cups of brown sugar, one tea- 
spoonful of white pepper, one teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, one 
teaspoonful of ground allspice, one tablespoonful of mustard, two 
quarts of vinegar. Chop the tomatoes, mix the salt with them 
thoroughly, and let them stand over night. In the morning pour off 
the water and chop the onion and celery. Mix the sugar, pepper, 
cinnamon and mustard. Put in a porcelain kettle a layer of tomatoes, 
onion, celery and spices and so on until all is used and cover with the 
vinegar. Cook slowly all day, or until the tomatoes are soft. 

SALADS AND SALAD DRESSINGS 

A Staple Salad Dressing. — Take eight eggs, one cupful each of 
butter, cream and sugar, one tablespoonful each of black pepper, salt 
and mustard, one and one-half pints of vinegar, and a pinch of 
cayenne pepper. Beat the yolks of the eggs, add the other ingredi- 
ents, except the butter, mix thoroughly. Heat the vinegar, add the 
butter, boil and pour over the mixture, and stir it well while cooking. 
When this is cold it may be bottled and kept for weeks during the 
hottest weather, provided the bottle is covered thickly with brown 
paper to exclude the light. This is an excellent dressing for cabbage 
or lettuce, or any other vegetable salad and it can even be used with 
fruit and nuts when occasion demands. 

When kept in pint cans, carefully sealed, it will not deteriorate, 
and salad always makes a nice addition to either supper or dinner. 
When the dressing is all ready for use the work of preparing the 
salad is hardly worth mentioning, and there are few cupboards so 
bare that something may not be found for some kind of salad. It 
may be used on apples and celery, celery and cabbage, or cabbage 
and onions— in fact the combinations that may be made are endless. 
And cold meats and fruits and nuts may be mixed. 

Another Recipe. — Rub the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs smooth, 
add two teaspoonfuls of dry mustard, two of fine salt, and a few 
dashes of cayenne, or you may use white pepper or paprika, if you 
object to the "bite" of the cayenne, using considerable more; mix 



aoo PRACTICAL RECIPES 

these thoroughly, then add one tablespoonful of fine sugar, two of 
olive oil and four raw eggs well beaten; after this is worked to a 
smooth paste add very slowly a scant cup of vinegar and mix 
thoroughly. Pour in bottles, cork and keep in a cool, dry place and 
shake before using. This sells in the city stores for thirty-five cents 
one-half pint bottles. 

Mayonnaise Dressing. — An hour before making the dressing place 
in the icebox two eggs, a deep soup plate and a bottle of salad oil, 
and let them get chilled. Break the eggs carefully, drain off every 
particle of the whites, and drop the yolks in the chilled soup plate. 
Squeeze a teaspoonful of lemon juice on the yolks, and with a silver 
fork stir them with a rotary motion. Begin at once to pour in the 
oil, a drop at a time at first, then a teaspoonful, lastly a tablespoonful. 
When the dressing is like a yellow jelly thin it with lemon juice to 
taste, a dash of paprika and a little salt and mustard. Stir well 
together and add more salad oil until at least half a pint has been 
used. As much as a pint may be safely stirred into two yolks, 
although less will be sufficient. Keep the mayonnaise in a cold place 
until wanted. 

Ham Salad. — Chop very fine one pound and a half of lean ham 
and two ounces of fat. Into one-half a cupful of vinegar stir one- 
quarter of a teaspoonful of dry mustard and pepper to taste; put on 
to boil. Beat one egg, yolk and white together until very light. 
When the vinegar boils take it off the stove and stir in the beaten 
egg; return to the stove and boil, stirring constantly until it thickens. 
Salt is not needed, for the ham is already salty enough. Pour this 
dressing over the ham, mix well and serve cold, garnished with lettuce. 

Novelty Potato Salad. — To make potato salad use half a dozen 
good-sized, cold boiled potatoes sliced and arranged in a salad bowl 
with a little salt and pepper sprinkled on, and then a dressing of oil 
and vinegar. Next two salt herrings, boned and picked into bits. 
Cover this with a mixture consisting of two sour apples, pared and 
sliced, a few cucumber pickles, and a half dozen slices of pickled beets 
cut into dice, a tablespoonful of chopped onions and then enough 
more of the dressing to cover the salad nicely. 

Onion Salad. — Cut Bermuda onions into thin slices and arrange 
them in nests of lettuce on a shallow dish and cover with French 
dressing. 



COOKING RECIPES 201 

Cabbage Salad. — Shave one tart apple and one-half head of cab- 
bage on a slaw cutter and mix with a French dressing. 

Pepper Salad. — Take equal number of red and green peppers. 
Cut out stem ends and carefully remove veins and seed. Arrange 
alternately on toasted crackers, fill with cabbage salad and add 
spoonful of either boiled or mayonnaise dressing. 

Hot Beet Salad. — Serve the beets piping hot with the ordinary 
dressing of vinegar, butter, pepper and salt. 

Stuffed Beet Salad. — Boil large beets and scrape off the skins. With 
a small spoon scoop out the insides of the beets. Let them get 
perfectly cold. Chop up half as much minced ham and chopped 
parsley. Season with salt and pepper and put the mixture back in 
the beets. Set the beets on the lettuce leaves and pour a mayonnaise 
over all. 

September Salad. — Select blood beets of uniform size. Boil until 
tender and put in icebox until cold. Skin the beets, cut off a slice 
from the stem end that they may stand firmly, remove centers until 
you have only hollow shells. Fill with vinegar until needed. Pour 
out vinegar when ready to serve and fill full of crisp chopped celery 
and mayonnaise dressing. Put on top of each a ring cut from a hard 
boiled egg and sprinkle with bits of chopped parsley. Serve on 
lettuce leaves. 

Celery Salad. — There are many recipes for celery salad. A simple 
one is made by cutting firm, fresh tomatoes into cubes, add an equal 
quantity of celery cut into bits; cover with mayonnaise. 

Another Celery Salad. — Chop one bunch of celery fine. Put in 
dish. Add salt, three tablespoonfuls of vinegar and three of sugar. 
Let stand a few minutes. Then add three tablespoonfuls of good, 
thick cream and serve. 

Mushroom Salad. — Drain stewed wild mushrooms, cut into quarters 
and bed on lettuce, then chill; garnish with nut meats and dress with 
lemon catsup. 

NUT AND FRUIT SALADS 

Cheese Nut Salad. — Moisten a cupful of soft, freshly made cream 
cheese with two tablespoonfuls of cream, add a level teaspoonful of 
salt, a saltspoonful of white pepper and a dash of paprika; form into 
balls the size of marbles. Press half a walnut meat into each side. 
Serve on crisp lettuce leaves and pour a mayonnaise dressing over. 



202 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Chestnut Salad. — Shell a pint of large, solid chestnuts; throw them 
into boiling water for five minutes, and remove the brown skins; 
then boil or steam until tender. While they are boiling put into a 
bowl a saltspoonful of salt, a dash of black pepper, one onion sliced 
very thin, and four tablespoonfuls of olive oil, rubbing all the while, 
and then two tablespoonfuls of tarragon vinegar. Pour this over the 
chestnuts while they are hot. Stand aside until very cold. Serve on 
lettuce leaves. 

Pecan Salad. — Two parts celery, one part pecan meats. Dressing: 
Two tablespoonfuls French mustard, two of olive oil or melted butter, 
three eggs stirred in, one at a time, and one teacupful of vinegar. 
Cook in a double boiler. Be careful not to let it curdle. 

Nut Salad. — Four boiled potatoes sliced . thin, three bunches of 
celery cut in small pieces, a half cup of English walnuts, one cup 
mayonnaise dressing, one cup whipped cream. 

Nut Salad. — Break butternut or hickorynut meats in small pieces 
and mix with twice the quantity of celery chopped not very fine; for 
the dressing stir to a cream an egg, two scant tablespoonfuls of salt, 
half a teacupful of vinegar and a saltspoonful of dry mustard. 

An Excellent Salad to Serve with Duck is made of peanuts. Soak 
one cupful of the meats in olive oil for half an hour. Drain and toss 
in the salad bowl with two cupfuls of finely cut celery and ten or 
twelve pitted olives. Mix with a mayonnaise dressing and serve on 
lettuce leaves. 

Pineapple Salad. — Equal quantities pineapple, apple and celery. 
Dressing: Two eggs, beaten light, then add two tablespoonfuls of 
flour, six of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of salt, one of dry mustard, one 
of butter. Add one and one-half cups white wine vinegar. Boil until 
thick. Add just enough dressing to mix the salad, then add whipped 
cream till puffy. 

Grape Salad. — This salad is very pretty, besides being delicious. 
Stem California grapes, and with a sharp knife make small incisions in 
each grape. Remove seeds and fill each cavity with coarsely chopped 
English walnuts. Place each serving of grapes on a dainty bed of 
light green curled lettuce leaves. Serve with narrow crisp wafers. 
Large, ripe, white California grapes will peel easily. Allow five to a 
person. 

Tomato and Pineapple Salad. — Arrange crisp lettuce leaves on a 



COOKING RECIPES 203 

platter and place on the center of each leaf sliced tomato, alternating 
with a slice of canned pineapple, with a preserved cherry in the 
middle of each slice. Marinate with a French dressing. 

Fruit Salad. — Equal parts of bananas, oranges and Malaga grapes 
cut in small dice. Mix, add a good salad dressing and serve on 
lettuce leaves. 

Rich Orange Salad. — Slice three oranges. Cut the slices in halves, 
arrange the slices overlapping each other in the form of a cross in a 
shallow salad bowl. Cut the celery into finger lengths and slash the 
ends. Arrange on each side the orange slices. Heat one cup of 
strained honey, add to it the juice of one lemon and pour over the 
salad. 

While Grapes, Asparagus Tips and English Walnuts, with a whipped 
cream dressing, make a novel and dainty salad. 

Hollowed-out Apples or Beets make artistic and pretty cups to 
hold salad. 

VEGETABLES 

If we would be healthy we must eat vegetables and plenty of them. 
These bodies of ours cannot be perfectly healthy without them. 
Here are some facts as to the qualities of the various familiar vege- 
tables. 

Great care should be exercised in the selection and preparation of 
vegetables. The elements of nutrition are wasted in a great variety 
of ways, — by soaking, parboiling, burning and in cooking too long or 
not long enough. 

All vegetables are compounds of cells surrounded by a woody 
fiber, and rapid boiling toughens the fiber and ruptures the cells, dis- 
pelling into the water and air many of the principles that should 
remain as food. 

Vegetables are rich in mineral elements and also give bulk to 
food. It would be impossible to live a healthy life upon vegetables 
alone, as it would require too much bulk to receive a proper ration of 
food. They should be used in combination with foods rich in the car- 
bonaceous and nitrogenous elements. 

The Young Shoots of Asparagus have from remote time been held 
in high repute as a culinary vegetable owing to their delicate flavor 
and diuretic virtues. No vegetable is more favorably known as a 
cleansing agent of the kidneys. 



2o 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

The Common Bean is more nutritious than wheat. It is, however, 
a rather coarse food and difficult of digestion. Wax and butter 
beans, when cooked tender, are wholesome and nutritious. Peas are 
equally nutritious and wholesome. 

The Beet, owing to the amount of sugar it contains, is considered 
more nutritious than any other esculent tuber except the potato. 

The Cabbage Family has in it many branches — namely, Brusselt 
sprouts, one of the most delicate of table vegetables; the common 
drumhead, of which sauerkraut is made; the red cabbage, excellent 
for pickling; cauliflower; broccoli, a variety of cauliflower; broccoli 
sprouts and kale, besides numerous other varieties unfit for table use, 
adapted to the needs of animals. All contain a large percentage 
of nitrogenous compounds as compared with other articles of food. 
They are a mental and physical tonic, but unless eaten very fresh are 
difficult of digestion, and have a very decided tendency to produce 
flatulence. 

The Carrot is a vegetable but little used by Americans, but can be 
found almost a daily accompaniment to the Frenchman's dinner. 
Carrots contain sugar enough for making a sirup for them. Starch 
does not enter into their composition, but a small portion of pectose 
is found instead. Iron is the mineral of greatest value found in the 
carrot, and gives it color. It is said that the frequent use of carrots 
will bring brilliancy to the eye, smoothness and gloss to the hair and 
clearness and color to the complexion. 

Celery contains aromatic oil, sugar, mucilage, starch and manna 
sugar. The daily moderate use of celery is said to remove nervous- 
ness and even palpitation of the heart. For rheumatism and kidney 
trouble it is considered excellent. Those having weak digestions 
should eat celery cooked, as the fiber of celery makes it difficult of 
digestion. 

The Cucumber and Nuskmelon possess remedial qualities for 
rheumatism. Their juices are also valuable as an emollient for the 
complexion, in the form of lotions, cold creams or pomades. 

The Onion, belonging to the same family as the garlic and leek, 
is classed among the vegetables of value as a blood purifier; it stimu- 
lates the secretions, and like celery is useful for nervousness. The 
strong taste and smell of onions are due to volatile oil rich in sulphur. 
The purgative properties of the onion recommend its frequent use to 



COOKING RECIPES 205 

cleanse the general system. It especially promotes discharge from 
the mucous membrane of the lungs and trachea. 

Horseradish is a good local stimulant and a mental and physical 
tonic. Its frequent use will relieve the tendency to dropsy, and it 
contains properties that are beneficial to chronic rheumatism 
sufferers. 

Spinach exerts a strong influence over lungs and liver. Its seeds 
are often prescribed in the Orient for inflammation of the liver and 
to relieve difficult breathing. It is called by a French physician "the 
broom of the stomach," and is considered a blood purifier and a com- 
plexion beautifier. 

The Parsnip contains but little nutrient value, mostly starch and 
sugar, with one per cent mineral matters. It should be handled with 
care in cooking and serving, as the fibrous matter contained therein 
makes it difficult of digestion. There is danger in eating parsnips 
very late in the spring. After they begin to sprout they acquire an 
acrid taste and are poisonous. 

Potatoes have been easily grown and preserved, consequently the 
American people have learned the habit of making them too strong 
a staple of diet. A potato is about seventy-five per cent water, 
twenty-five per cent remaining as food, with too strong a per cent of 
starch to make it a food perfect in dietetic proportions. In the 
majority of homes you will find the potato upon the table three 
times a day. Once a day is often enough. Substitute rice and 
corn and they will give better food proportions. The nutritive 
value of the potato is twenty-two, rice eighty-six, corn eighty-seven 
per cent. 

Rhubarb is a most efficient stomachic. By its use the stomach is 
strengthened and incited to healthy action. 

The Squash has great food value. Its properties are similar to 
those of the sweet potato. 

The Watercress is a pungent stimulant with anti-scorbutic prop- 
erties. 

Nasturtium Pods have similar attributes to the horseradish and 
watercress. 

The Medicinal Qualities of the Radish stimulate, cleanse and tone 
the system. 

Lettuce is especially healthful, because so easy of digestion. 



2o6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Added to this are laxative and soporific qualities which make it a 
valuable salad for nervous people. 

Okra has a soothing effect upon the system. 

POTATOES 

Lime and Potatoes. — A little lime sprinkled on potatoes that are 
to be kept as far into the spring as possible keeps them from becom- 
ing watery, and a little lime as well as a little salt put into the water 
in which old potatoes are boiled makes them mealy. 

Boiled Potatoes. — In cooking Irish potatoes boil till tender, pour 
water off, set on back of stove in the vessel they are boiled in, for five 
minutes. They will fall to pieces when you take them up and not be 
watery as they are when left in the water. 

Baked Potatoes. — Pare large, even-sized potatoes, bake on a tin 
plate in a moderately heated oven, turn occasionally that they may 
bake evenly. Serve on a platter covered with a napkin. 

Fried Potatoes with Egg. — Fry one pint of sliced, seasoned, cold 
potatoes in one tablespoonful of butter until brown; beat up and stir 
into them one egg when ready to serve. 

Escalloped Potatoes. — Thin slices of salt pork are fried crisp, and a 
gravy is made by stirring flour into the hot fat, and then adding milk 
and letting it come to a boil. Cold boiled potatoes are sliced into an 
earthen dish and seasoned, the crisp pork is mixed in and the gravy 
poured over all. The dish is covered closely and set in the oven and 
when it is baked for a breakfast dish there are few who do not con- 
sider it appetizing. 

Escalloped Potatoes and Onions. — Cut pared potatoes and peeled 
onions into thin slices, dispose in alternate layers in a buttered baking- 
dish, adding a teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper to a 
pint of potatoes. Pour over milk to cover the ingredients and bake 
about three hours, adding more milk if needed. Fifteen minutes 
before serving cover the top with two-thirds of a cup of cracker 
crumbs mixed with a tablespoonful of butter and let brown in the 
oven. This dish, if prepared with cooked potatoes and onions, 
requires only half an hour's cooking. 

Potatoes with Oysters, Manhattan Style. — Boil eight or ten large 
potatoes in water, to each quart of which add one teaspoonful of salt. 
When tender mash them well, add the yolks of two eggs, a teaspoon- 



COOKING RECIPES 207 

fill of chopped parsley and a "suspicion" of chopped onion. Add a 
scant teaspoonful of salt and a dusting of nutmeg and mix all well 
together, then stir in three tablespoonfuls of cream and finally the 
whites of the eggs beaten to a froth. Shape into flat rissoles or 
croquettes and roll in cracker meal. Make a depression in each 
rissole for the oysters. Have ready a pan of deep boiling fat, drop in 
the potatoes, letting them become a golden brown — three minutes 
suffice. While these are browning put a pint of good oysters in a 
covered stewpan with their own liquor and one-eighth teapoonful 
of pepper. Cook two minutes, without boiling. Turn off the juice 
and add a scant cup of white sauce. Let the oysters stew gently in 
this while the potatoes are being dished. Arrange croquettes on 
dish, and fill the depressions with the oyster mixture, taking care to 
have a margin of brown potato all the way around. 

Delmonico Potatoes. — Reheat two cups of cold boiled potatoes cut 
in dice in one and one-fourth cups of white sauce. Put a layer in a 
buttered pan or pudding-dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and 
continue until all are used. Cover with buttered crumbs and bake 
until crumbs are brown. If the white sauce is rather thick cover the 
contents of the dish with milk before placing it in the oven. 

The white sauce is prepared thus: Two tablespoonfuls of butter, 
three tablespoonfuls of flour, one cup of milk, one saltspoonful of 
salt and half that quantity of pepper. Melt the butter and stir the 
flour in while the dish is still over the fire, being careful not to brown 
the mixture in the least. Gradually add the milk, stirring the while 
to prevent the sauce from becoming lumpy. 

Parker House Potatoes. — To a pint of hot, seasoned mashed pota- 
toes add one beaten egg and one tablespoonful of flour. Roll half an 
inch thick and cut into large circles. Lay one teaspoonful of minced 
cooked lamb or veal on half of each and fold over, pinching well 
together. Lay on a buttered pan and bake brown. Serve with veal 
gravy. 

Colonial Potatoes. — Prepare a quart of hot mashed potatoes in the 
usual way. Grease twelve small cups with butter, pack with the 
potato and turn out. Sprinkle each pyramid thickly with fine brown- 
bread crumbs, stand in a greased pan and place in a hot oven until 
the crumbs are crisp. Place on a platter and in the top of each place 
a sprig of curly parsley. 



ao8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Potato Chowder. — Peel and slice a number of medium-sized pota- 
toes, put a large teaspoonful of sugar and a quart of hot water in a 
stewpan, add salt, and when boiling hot add the potatoes and cook 
slowly for half an hour. Add a pint of milk, let it come just to a boil, 
add more seasoning if necessary, thicken slightly and serve immedi- 
ately. A little pulverized dried parsley or celery seed, or both, will 
improve the chowder if added a few minutes before serving. 

Potatoes and Cheese. — Wash well six medium-sized potatoes and 
bake until tender. Cut off the end of each and scoop out the contents 
into a hot bowl. Add one teaspoonful of butter, salt and pepper to 
taste, and three tablespoonfuls of cream. Beat until very light, then 
add three tablespoonfuls of grated Swiss cheese. Mix, fill the skins 
and return to the oven until thoroughly heated. 

Nassasoit Potatoes. — When you reach the bottom of the potato 
barrel and find a panful of tiny potatoes which paring would reduce 
to nothing, transform a quart of them into delicious Massasoit pota- 
toes. Brush clean and boil for twenty-five minutes. Drain, drench 
with cold water, skin and pile them in a shallow baking-dish. Pour 
over them a coffee cupful of thin cream sauce, toss lightly with a fork 
until well coated with the sauce. Sprinkle with a tablespoonful of 
Parmesan cheese and bake until delicately browned. 

SWEET POTATOES 

Sweet Potato Pone. — Wash, but do not peel, enough raw sweet 
potatoes to make one and one-half pints when grated. Grate them 
on a horseradish grater, then add three well beaten eggs, half a cupful 
of molasses, one cupful sugar, one heaping tablespoonful butter, two 
teaspoonfuls baking-powder, and a very little ginger, or cinnamon 
and cloves if preferred. This, when mixed, should be of the consist- 
ency of corn-bread batter. If not, add more of the grated potato. 
Bake it in a small dripping-pan. 

Sweet Potato Croquettes. — To a pint bowlful of peeled, boiled and 
mashed sweet potatoes add a generous tablespoonful of butter, the 
whites of two eggs, whipped to a froth, half teaspoonful salt and a 
shake of pepper, a gill of hot cream, or just enough to make the 
mixture soft enough to handle; mold into shape, roll in crumbs, then 
in beaten eggs, again in crumbs and fry in very hot lard. 



COOKING RECIPES 209 

Sweet Potatoes with Sausage. — Wash but do not peel five even 
sized potatoes, lay them peel side down on a bake-pan, cutting off a 
little so that they will lie flat; scoop a hollow in the cut side, fill in 
with sausage meat; pour a little hot water in the pan and bake in a 
moderate oven. 

ONIONS 

Boiled Onions Can Be Made Very Delicate if cooked in a number of 
waters. They should be placed in salted boiling water, and cooked 
until tender, the water changed several times, the vegetable thor- 
oughly drained and served with either a white sauce, melted butter, 
or, if the onions are to be served as a garnish, they can be browned. 
After they are boiled tender in the pan they should be sprinkled with 
salt, pepper and a little sugar and put into a hot oven to brown. 

Stuffed Spanish Onions.— Peel the onions, scoop out from the top 
a portion of the center, parboil them for five minutes and turn them 
upside down to drain. Fill them with a stuffing made with equal 
parts of chicken or meat and soft bread crumbs. Chop the onion 
taken from the center and add it to the mixture. Season it with salt 
and pepper and moisten it with melted butter. Fill the onions and 
sprinkle the top with crumbs. Put them in a buttered pan and bake 
slowly, basting with melted butter. When they are thoroughly done 
remove the string and serve them on pieces of toast. 

Roast Onions. — Select large onions of uniform size. Do not peel 
them. When they are tender remove the skins and lay them in a 
heated covered dish and pour over them a sauce which consists of 
two tablespoonfuls of butter melted in a saucepan (do not let it 
color); stir into it a smooth paste made of two tablespoonfuls of flour 
and a cupful of milk, and stir until the sauce is smooth and thick. 
Season with salt and pepper to taste, a teaspoonful of minced parsley, 
a teaspoonful of lemon juice, and add, just before removing from the 
fire to serve, one egg slightly beaten. 

Onion Pie consists of six Spanish onions sliced and placed in a 
saucepan with enough butter to fry them a golden brown. The pan 
should be covered, and when the onions are tender a cupful of rich 
milk should be added, one egg beaten and stirred with a tablespoon- 
ful of flour and a little cold milk. Season with a half teaspoonful of 
salt and a dash of pepper. Have ready a deep baking-plate lined 



2IO PRACTICAL RECIPES 

with a plain pie crust. Turn in the onion mixture, cover the top with 
buttered bread crumbs and place in the oven until brown. The crust 
should be well baked before putting it with the onion mixture. 

Escalloped Onions. — Boil onions in salted boiling water to which 
milk has been added until they are tender. Then drain, reserving 
the liquid for making soup, and put the onions into a baking-dish in 
alternate layers with bread crumbs, salt, pepper and a little sage. 
Dot each layer of crumbs with bits of butter; pour over the whole a 
cup of milk; cover the top with crumbs and bits of butter; bake a 
light brown and serve very hot. 

Creamed Onions. — Boil until very tender, changing the water 
twice; break in bits, season very freely with cream and butter, salt 
and white pepper to taste. Serve from a covered dish. 

Mashed Onions. — Peel a dozen onions, blanch and drain them; put 
them in a saucepan with enough white stock to cover them; simmer 
them slowly until they are done, but do not allow them to get colored. 
Add a cup of Bechmal sauce and let it cook until well reduced and 
thick, then rub the whole through a sieve. Add a little butter, season 
and serve. 

TOMATOES 

Stuffed Tomatoes. — Dip the tomatoes into boiling water, peel them 
and scoop out the centers with a small spoon and place the tomatoes 
on a tin dish. Mix a lump of butter the size of a walnut with an 
ounce of flour, a little mushroom liquor, a tablespoonful of tomato 
sauce, a dessertspoonful of olive oil, a teaspoonful of chopped parsley 
and shalots in equal quantities, half a teaspoonful of salt and one- 
eighth of a teaspoonful of pepper; place in a saucepan over the fire 
and stir until quite hot and thoroughly mixed; fill each tomato with 
some of this stuffing; sprinkle with grated bread crumbs. Put into a 
baking-tin with a few spoonfuls of olive oil and bake for ten or twelve 
minutes. 

Virginia Cream Tomatoes. — Select firm, smooth and rather small 
tomatoes fresh from the vine if possible; scald and remove skins 
without breaking the fruit, cutting out the hard core at the stem end. 
Place them close together, with the cut sides up, in an enameled pan, 
in which has been spread half an ounce of butter. Set this on the 
stove and keep at a heat just below the frying point. A higher degree 
of heat will scorch the butter, cause the tomatoes to stick to the pan, 



COOKING RECIPES 211 

the juices to escape and the entire dish to be spoiled. Into the cut 
places at the stem end of each tomato press a teaspoonful of fine dry 
bread crumbs, allowing for each tomato an eighth of a teaspoonful of 
salt, a dash of pepper and a half teaspoonful of butter. Continue to 
cook slowly till the tomatoes show signs of breaking, which will be 
in about fifteen minutes. Then pour in for a half dozen tomatoes 
one-fourth pint of cream (milk will not do), and begin immediately 
to remove the tomatoes carefully with a large spoon to a hot vege- 
table dish. By the time all are taken up the cream will have 
simmered a little and become a golden color. Add a saltspoonful of 
salt, a good dash of pepper, and pour this over the contents of the 
dish. Half a teaspoonful of chopped parsley may be added to the 
gravy. This dish may be cooked in the oven if you watch it very 
carefully. 

Tomato Toast. — Have ready toasted squares of bread. To one- 
half can of cooked and strained tomatoes add one tablespoonful of 
butter and flour blended, half teaspoonful of salt, teaspoonful of sugar. 
Pour over toast. 

Mock Oysters. — Stir into one pint of tomatoes one level teaspoon- 
ful of soda. Heat one quart of milk, add the tomatoes and a heaping 
tablespoonful of butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Let come to a 
boil. Serve with oyster crackers. 

Tomato Timbale. — Boil half a pound of macaroni until tender, but 
not broken, strain it and cut it into lengths which will fit a plain 
round mold; line the mold with the macaroni bent in circles. Fill 
with a mixture made of one pound of tomatoes, one pound of mush- 
rooms and a quarter of a pound of grated Parmesan cheese, all 
stirred together with four ounces of butter and the yolk of an egg; 
season with a teaspoonful of salt and a grain of red pepper. Put a 
paper around the mold and steam it for an hour. Turn out and 
ornament with small tomatoes on the top and serve with white mush- 
room sauce. 

Tomato Farces. — Carefully peel large, firm tomatoes and scoop out 
the centers. In the hollow thus left in each tomato put a layer of 
minced ham. Set the tomatoes in a bake-pan, sprinkle with salt and 
pepper, put a bit of butter upon the top of each and cook for ten 
minutes. Then drop upon the mince in each tomato a raw egg; dust 
with salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are "set." 



2i2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Green Tomato Pie. — Cut and peel the tomatoes in thick slices, then 
wash in several waters to remove most of the seed, drop into hot 
water and bring to a boil, then drain thoroughly. To each pound of 
tomatoes add three-quarters of a pound of sugar and the grated rind 
of a lemon; cook all together until the tomatoes are clear, then set 
aside to get cold. Add the juice of a lemon and bake in a bottom 
crust with strips of pastry laid across the top as for tart. 

Fried Tomatoes. — Select smooth, round tomatoes of equal size, cut 
them in thin slices, sprinkle with salt. Make a fritter batter with 
flour, water, egg, pepper and salt. Dip each slice of tomato in the 
batter, then fry in sufficient hot fat to brown both sides at once. 
These are excellent served as a vegetable, or for breakfast, accom- 
panied by a poached egg and crisp bacon. 

Preserved Green Tomatoes. — Select the small tomatoes, wash and 
cover with boiling water and scald until the skins loosen; then peel 
and drain; take equal weight of granulated sugar and tomatoes and 
make a sirup with water and the juice of a lemon and a few pieces of 
stick cinnamon. Put in the tomatoes and cook gently until they are 
tender and clear. 

CABBAGE 

Baked Cabbage. — More often than not cabbage is ruined by being 
cooked too much. Take a head of cabbage and cut as fine as though 
it were to be used for cold slaw. Put it into a pan and then fill the 
pan about two-thirds full of sweet milk. Season well with pepper, 
salt and a little butter. Put this into a second dish partly filled with 
water and bake until tender. 

Baked Cabbage— Another Recipe. — Boil a hard head of cabbage fifteen 
minutes, drain, pour over boiling water and cook until perfectly 
tender; when cold chop fine, add two beaten eggs, a tablespoonful of 
butter, three of cream, salt and white pepper, and bake in a buttered 
dish until brown. 

Escalloped Cabbage. — Cut one-half boiled cabbage in pieces, put in 
baking-dish, add salt and, pepper and pour over it grated Parmesan 
cheese and grated bread crumbs. Bake one-half hour. 

CAULIFLOWER 
Boiled Cauliflower.— Trim off the outside leaves and cut the stalk 
even with the flower. Let it stand upside down in salted water for 



COOKING RECIPES 213 

fifteen or twenty minutes to take out any insects there may be in it. 
Put it into a generous quantity of rapidly boiling salted water and 
cook it uncovered for about twenty minutes, but not so soft as to fall 
to pieces. Remove any scum from the water before lifting out the 
cauliflower. Serve with a white or Hollandaise sauce. 

Cauliflower au Gratin. — One large cauliflower, four tablespoonfuls 
of grated cheese, one cup of drawn butter, pepper and salt. Boil the 
cauliflower until tender, about twenty minutes, have ready a cup of 
good drawn butter and pour over the cauliflower after it has been 
drained and dished. Sift the cheese thickly over the top and brown 
by holding a red-hot shovel so close to the cheese that it singes and 
blazes, or under a gas flame. 

SPINACH 

Spinach and Eggs. — Boil the spinach carefully and chop it fine. 
Season with oil, vinegar and pepper. Press firmly into small molds; 
then take them out and decorate the top with hard boiled eggs. 
Garnish with lettuce. Serve with a mayonnaise or boiled dressing. 

Spinach Souffle. — Take a cupful of spinach, carefully prepared, 
and mix with it the beaten yolk of an egg and stir it over the fire 
until the egg has set; let it cool. When ready to serve stir into it 
lightly the well beaten whites of three eggs. Fill individual china 
cups or buttered paper boxes half full and place them in an oven for 
ten or fifteen minutes. Serve at once. Like any souffle it will fall if 
not sufficiently baked or if not served promptly. 

Spinach and Cream. — -Pick off the leaves from the stalk, put on and 
boil in water with a little salt, and cook twenty minutes. Drain 
thoroughly and chop fine. Return to the fire with a generous piece 
of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar, a little nutmeg, pepper and salt, and 
stir two minutes. Then beat in two or three tablespoonfuls of cream 
and thicken as you would a custard. Let it boil up once and serve 
immediately. 

Chartreuse of Spinach. — Boil a large carrot and turnip, cut them 
into slices lengthwise three-eighths of an inch thick, then into strips 
of the same width. Butter a mold, ornamenting the bottom with 
hard boiled eggs or fancy pieces of vegetables; around the sides of 
the mold place close together alternate strips of the carrot and 
turnip; if the mold is well buttered they will easily hold in place. 



2i 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Fill the center with cooked spinach and press it down so that it is 
quite firm. Smooth the top and cut off the strips of vegetables so 
that they are even. Heat the chartreuse by placing the mold in a 
pan of hot water and placing both in the oven for a few minutes. 
Turn the chartreuse on a flat dish and serve. A white or vinaigrette 
sauce may be served with it. This is an excellent dish to serve with 
chops or sweetbreads. Cabbage may be used in place of the spinach 
if desired. 

TURNIPS, CARROTS AND PARSNIPS 

Turnips with Eggs. — Peel, cut in thin slices and boil tender but not 
to break, drain, mash, season with salt, pepper and butter, stir in two 
or three beaten eggs, set on the stove and stir until the eggs are 
cooked. 

Young Turnips or Carrots Baked. — Take a pint of young turnips or 
carrots that have been cut into small dice and put them into a baking- 
dish containing an equal quantity — or a little more — of milk, and 
season well with pepper, salt and a teaspoonful of butter broken into 
little bits. Set the baking-dish into a pan half full of water and bake 
for three-quarters of an hour. The milk will, by this time, have 
become rich and creamy. Now dust bread crumbs over the top, put 
on a little butter and brown nicely in the oven. 

Carrot Croquettes. — A dozen small croquettes can be made from four 
large carrots. Boil them till tender, drain and rub through a sieve. 
Add one cupful of thick white sauce (using for it two heaping table- 
spoonfuls of flour), mix, season highly, and when cold and firm shape 
and finish as for other croquettes. 

Carrot Fritters. — Grate six cold cooked carrots, add one-half cupful 
each of flour and milk, one teaspoonful sugar, one-half teaspoonful 
each of salt and pepper. Mix well and then add two well beaten eggs; 
fry in deep fat. 

Baked Parsnips. — Scrape and slice in rounds three parsnips, pare 
and cut in round slices two medium sized sweet potatoes. Sprinkle 
with two tablespoonfuls of sugar. Put in a buttered baking-dish, pour 
over one cup of rich milk and one tablespoonful of melted butter. 
Cover and bake for twenty minutes in a hot oven; uncover and 
brown. 

Parsnips. — A delicious novelty in a vegetable dish may be had by 
cutting parsnips into strips about three inches long, allowing them to 



COOKING RECIPES 215 

soak in cold water for half an hour, then drying in a towel and frying 
in deep fat as if preparing French fried potatoes. 

SQUASH 

Cooked Squash. — The best way to cook Hubbard squash is to cut it 
in half, take out the seeds and then bake in a medium oven for an 
hour or more if not done. Remove the brown skin that will form on 
top, put the squash through a fruit press and season it with salt, 
pepper, butter and a little cream. 

Squash Baked in Half-shell. — Select a ripe and well-shaped winter 
squash; cut in half lengthwise; take out the seeds and scrape care- 
fully, but do not pare. Place one or both halves in a baking-pan, 
pour around a little water, cover and bake in moderately hot oven 
one and one-half hours, or till very tender. Fifteen minutes before 
it is done remove the cover; turn out the water that has accumulated; 
rub the inside with butter, sprinkle well with salt — from one and 
one-half to two teaspoonfuls to the half-shell — and a saltspoonful of 
pepper. Return to the oven to dry off and slightly brown. Place on 
a platter and serve from the half-shell with a spoon. 

Squash Dulce. — Pare and' boil squash until dark and thick. To 
every quart of the boiled squash add a teaspoonful each of ginger 
and cinnamon, half a teaspoonful each of cloves and salt, six gratings 
of nutmeg, two tablespoonfuls of molasses and half a cupful of sugar. 
When cold form into small patties, dust with flour and fry brown; 
serve hot. This is a favorite Porto Rican dessert. 

SUCCOTASH 

Succotash. — Take equal quantities of shelled lima or butter beans 
and corn cut from the ear, having first cooked and seasoned them 
separately. Or cut the raw corn from the ear by scoring each row 
and pressing the pulp out with the back of a knife, and when the 
beans are nearly soft add the corn and cook fifteen minutes. Add 
cream, butter, salt and pepper. 

PEAS 

Peas in Toast Cases.— Pour the contents of a can of peas into a col- 
ander, drain, place in a saucepan with just water enough to cover 
and cook till very tender. Season with one-half teaspoonful of salt 



216 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and three or four dashes of pepper. Add one cupful of milk or thin 
cream and thicken with a level tablespoonful of flour that has been 
cooked in one tablespoonful of butter. Cook two or three minutes 
and turn into the cases, which have been prepared as follows: Cut 
five slices of bread (small loaf) one-half inch thick, and five slices one 
inch thick. Make them square or round, but of uniform size. Toast 
nicely; cut the centers from the five thick slices, leaving a half or 
three-fourths inch wall; butter all well. Form the cases on a hot 
platter by placing a ring of toast upon each whole slice; place in the 
oven for a moment, and when ready to serve fill the cases; then 
garnish the platter with strips of well-cooked and seasoned carrots. 

CHICORY 

Chicory with Cream Sauce. — Select two heads of chicory, throw 
away all the outer leaves, wash them in two waters, blanch in boiling 
salted water, remove in ten minutes and cool in fresh water. Drain, 
chop and cook for fifteen minutes in two ounces of butter. Pour over 
one glassful of cream, dust with a saltspoonful each of salt and mace 
and serve with croutons. 

LENTILS 

Lentils. — Cover a pint of cleaned lentils with cold water and boil 
one hour. Cut half a pound of salt pork into thin slices and fry it 
with four large sliced onions in butter until tender and brown. Stir 
in two teaspoonfuls of browned flour and twofupfuls of beef stock; 
cook until thick; add two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one teaspoonful 
of salt and a little pepper. Drain the water from the beans, cover 
again with cold water and boil until soft, then add the meat 
mixture. Simmer ten minutes and serve. 

BEANS 

Boston Baked Beans. — Soak one pint hand-picked navy beans over 
night in cold water; in the morning drain off the water and boil in 
fresh water for ten minutes, adding a teaspoonful of soda. Drain off 
this water and put the beans in stone jar, one that is smaller at the 
top if you have such a one. Add one-half pound pickled pork cut in 
strips, one-half cup molasses, one-half teaspoonful pepper. Cover 
with boiling water and bake all day in hot oven, adding water occa- 
sionally—always keeping the pork and beans covered. 



HOUSEHOLD RECIPES 217 

Pea Beans Baked wilh Tomatoes. — Soak one pint of pea beans in cold 
water over night. In the morning wash and rinse carefully and 
parboil until soft enough to pierce with a pin and no longer. Change 
the water several times, adding to the last a teaspoonful of soda, let 
boil, drain and rinse. Put half the beans into an earthen bean-pot. 
Pour scalding water over one-fourth a pound of salt pork, scrape 
thoroughly, then score the rind for cutting in half-inch slices. Put 
this into the bean-pot and cover with the remainder of the beans. 
Have ready three pints of tomato puree (stewed tomato passed 
through a sieve fine enough to retain the seeds). Sprinkle the beans 
with a generous teaspoonful of salt, same of mustard and two table- 
spoonfuls of sugar, then add the tomato to cover. Bake about eight 
hours in a moderate oven. Keep the beans covered with the tomato, 
also the cover on the pot until the last hour. During the last hour 
remove the cover and draw the pork to the surface to brown. 

Lima Beans. — Wash thoroughly one' coffee cupful of dried lima 
beans, soak over night in one quart of water in which one saltspoon- 
ful of soda has been dissolved. Next noon rinse well, put to cook in 
one quart of tepid water, let simmer slowly two hours, then add a 
scant teaspoonful of salt, more water if necessary, and let simmer 
another hour, when they should be tender. Drain off any remaining 
water, add a teaspoonful of butter, a saltspoonful of pepper and if 
convenient three tablespoonfuls of cream. Mix carefully, so as not to 
break the beans, cover, place on back of stove for five minutes, then 
serve in hot dish. 

Boston Bean Croquettes. — To one and a half pint beans previously 
cooked just sufficiently to pass through a colander, add one table- 
spoonful of vinegar, one of molasses and one of butter, a pinch of 
cayenne and half a teaspoonful of salt; mix well, and when cold form 
into balls or croquettes, dip in egg and crumbs and fry in very hot 
fat. These can best be handled in a wire basket, but are not difficult 
to handle without. 

Curry of Beans. — Chop one small onion and fry a pale brown in a 
tablespoonful of butter. Add one teaspoonful of curry-powder and 
two teaspoonfuls of milk, and mix smooth. Add one quart of baked 
beans and the juice of half a lemon. When steaming hot dish in a 
border of boiled rice. 

Bean Rarebit.— Melt two tablespoonfuls butter, add one-half tea- 



2i8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

spoonful salt, one-quarter teaspoonful paprika, and one cup cold 
baked beans rubbed through a strainer. Mix well, and when thor- 
oughly heated add gradually one-half cup milk, then two-thirds 
of a cup of soft cheese finely cut, and three-quarters teaspoonful 
Worcestershire sauce. Stir until the cheese is melted, and serve 
very hot on zepherettes. This is a novel way of serving left-over 
beans, and may be prepared in a chafing-dish if desired. 

EGGPLANT 

Fried Egg-plant. — Cut the plant in slices about one-third of an inch 
thick. Pare these and lay in a flat dish. Cover with boiling water, 
to which has been added one tablespoonful of salt for every quart of 
water. Let this stand one hour. Drain and pepper the slices slightly 
and dip in beaten egg and bread crumbs (two eggs and a pint of 
crumbs for a good-sized plant). Fry in boiling fat for eight or ten 
minutes. The slices will be moist and soft when done. Or the 
slices can be seasoned with pepper, and cooked in just enough pork 
fat to dry them. 

Stewed Egg-plant. — Parboil for ten minutes. Slit down the sides 
and take out the seeds. Prop open the cut with a bit of clean wood 
and lay in salt and water for an hour. Stuff with a force meat of 
crumbs, fat salt pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley and a bit of onion, 
all chopped. Put on in a cupful of good soup stock and stew, closely 
covered, one hour, or until very tender. Take up and keep hot in a 
deep dish. Stir a lump of butter rolled in flour into the gravy; boil 
up and pour over the egg-plant. 

Stuffed Egg-plant. — Wash and dry two good-sized egg-plants and 
partly cut off the top of each, leaving it attached at one side so as to 
serve for a lid. Put one teaspoonful of finely chopped onion in a 
saucepan with one tablespoonful of butter and fry quickly until it 
begins to color; add six chopped mushrooms and one tablespoonful 
of sausage meat; season with salt and pepper and cook for three 
minutes longer. Add the inside of the plant, which has been scooped 
out and finely chopped, two tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs, and one 
teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley. Mix well and cook for five 
minutes longer. When cold stuff the shells with the mixture, replace 
the lids and bake for twenty-five minutes in a moderate oven. 

Egg-plant Fritters. — Boil the egg-plant until tender, then peel, drain 



COOKING RECIPES 219 

and chop or mash fine; season with salt and pepper and a little 
butter while hot; then set aside until cold. Mix two eggs beaten 
with two tablespoonfuls of flour to a smooth batter; there should be 
just enough flour to hold the mixture together. A half teaspoonful 
of baking-powder may be added to the flour if you want the fritters 
puffy. In this case fry in deep hot fat; otherwise fry them on a hot 
griddle the same as batter cakes. 

Escalloped Egg-plant. — Pare a nice, fresh, ripe egg-plant and divide 
into halves or quarters according to size. Put into a kettle of boiling 
water and cook until tender enough to be pierced very easily with a 
fork. Turn into a colander and drain. Then place in a heated bowl 
and beat with a silver fork until well broken up. Measure the pulp 
and to every cupful add an equal quantity of bread crumbs, a table- 
spoonful of thick sweet cream, a seasoning of pepper and salt to 
taste. Last of all add one egg well beaten. Turn all into a baking- 
dish, sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and place in a hot oven long 
enough to brown and set the egg, but not long enough to cook dry. 

SALSIFY OR OYSTER-PLANT 

Oyster Puddings may be made of this plant, and other dishes pre- 
pared which not everybody will be able to distinguish from real oyster 
luxuries, so closely related are their flavors. When the flower stalks 
are used they should be prepared like asparagus. This part of the 
plant is, however, little used. The roots are the portion for which it 
is usually cultivated. The root is a rather difficult one to dress for 
cooking, as it is filled with a milky juice that is sticky and darkens 
the hand unless the utmost care is exercised in handling. This milky 
juice, however, is the most valuable portion, and on account of its 
flavor and medicinal qualities should not be lost. On this account 
where the roots are smooth and of good size they may be boiled 
without scraping, and the skin removed afterward. 

Escalloped Salsify. — Boil the salsify and slice into thin pieces. 
Crumble a quantity of cracker crumbs. Put in a basin a layer of 
cracker crumbs, then a layer of salsify; spread over this bits of 
butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat until the dish is 
full. Moisten with milk or cream and bake. Serve hot. 

Salsify Croquettes. — Boil the salsify, slice lengthwise, and cut into 
pieces one and one-fourth inch long. Roll these pieces alternately 



220 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

in egg and bread or cracker crumbs until thickly coated. Fry brown 
in hot butter or lard. Serve hot. 

Salsify Croquettes — Another Recipe. — Boil the salsify, mash, season 
with butter, pepper and salt, roll in egg and bread or cracker crumbs. 
Fry brown in hot butter or lard and serve hot. 

Creamed Salsify. — Boil the salsify in milk rich in cream, putting in 
some butter and sprinkling with pepper and enough flour to make 
the milk of about the consistency of a thick paste. The tubers should 
be thoroughly done in order to eliminate that crispness that is foreign 
to oysters. 

Salsify in Cream Sauce. — Wash and scrape one dozen salsify roots, 
boil tender in salted water, drain, place in hot dish and pour over a 
teacupful of hot cream, a teaspoonful of minced parsley and a des- 
sertspoonful of butter. Treated in this way salsify is a fine substitute 
for cauliflower. 

LETTUCE 

Cooked Lettuce. — Select nice heads, cut the roots off, pick away any 
poor leaves and then tie the tops so they will keep their shape well; 
put in a dish with some good stock, cover closely and cook until 
tender. Drain the lettuce and thicken the stock in which it was 
cooked with either flour or corn-starch; pour this dressing over the 
lettuce and serve hot. Of course the amount of seasoning needed 
depends on the way the stock was seasoned. 

Inferior heads, or the lettuce which does not form heads, is very 
nice if cooked just like spinach and dressed with cream. Some vari- 
eties which have large white veins and mid-ribs may be made to 
serve a double purpose. Strip out the thin parts of the leaf for use 
in the salads and then cook the stems and dress them just like aspar- 
agus. It will make a substitute for asparagus which will go unsus- 
pected with a good many people. 

Nock Artichokes. — The heart of lettuce, when nicely cooked, makes 
a dish every bit as acceptable as the more rare artichokes. Take 
half a dozen heads of lettuce and take off the leaves to use for salad 
or sandwiches. Cut the stalk in good sized pieces, perhaps two 
inches long, and put into boiling salted water. Boil for twenty 
minutes and serve with a smooth white sauce poured over them. It 
is very nice to serve them on three or four crisp lettuce leaves. 



COOKING RECIPES 221 

WATERCRESS 

Watercress for Cooking. — When picked and washed the leaves 
should be taken off so as to do away with the thick stem of the 
middle of the sprig; it should then be boiled like spinach and rubbed 
through a wire sieve. It can be served like spinach for dinner or 
with poached eggs, while for breakfast it forms an excellent mat on 
which to lay broiled kidneys, a savory omelet, angels on horseback 
(rolls of broiled bacon with an oyster within each), broiled chicken, etc. 

CELERY 

Celery can be prepared and served by the recipe used for aspara- 
gus. The larger pieces should be scraped, cut in finger lengths, tied 
in bunches and cooked until tender in boiling water. Drain, throw 
into cold water, then return to salted boiling water and heat it 
through again. When the bunches are untied the individual portions 
should be put on squares of toast and a white or Hollandaise sauce 
poured over them. If a white sauce is to be used a little of the celery 
water added to the milk for the sauce helps the flavor greatly. To 
stew celery in the usual way of serving, it should be cut in inch pieces, 
boiled in salted water until tender, thoroughly drained and mixed 
with a white sauce. 

Celery au Jus. — Cut the heads of the celery into pieces six inches 
long, leaving them attached to the root. Remove the coarse branches 
and trim the roots neatly; parboil it for five minutes. Make a brown 
sauce, using two tablespoonfuls of butter and flour, one teaspoonful 
of salt and one-quarter teaspoonful of pepper. Add two cupfuls of 
stock when the sauce is well browned and in this place the bunches 
of celery. Cover and cook very slowly for twenty-five minutes. 
Remove the celery and place it evenly on a dish. Stir in the gravy 
and pour it around the celery. 

Minced Celery with Egg. — Scrape and wash the celery and cut into 
half-inch lengths, having first made crisp in ice-water. Rub the yolks 
of two hard-boiled eggs to a paste with a tablespoonful of oil, add 
salt, pepper, a little powdered sugar, vinegar to make the mixture 
liquid and pour over the celery. Serve as soon as mixed, as the 
vinegar has a tendency to toughen the celery. Celery can also 
be served with a mayonnaise or boiled dressing. 



222 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

RICE 

Rice should always be washed in several waters until all the floury 
coating is removed, as this makes it pasty. It may be cooked in a 
double boiler or in a large saucepan filled with salted boiling water; 
place over the hottest part of the range so that it will boil violently. 
The rice should be sprinkled in slowly so as not to stop the boiling, 
and it should cook fifteen or twenty minutes uncovered. The water 
should be drained off, the rice sprinkled with salt, the pot covered 
with a napkin, using only one thickness, the saucepan set on the 
side of the range so that the rice can steam out thoroughly, or the 
rice may be turned into a colander to drain, then placed in an open 
oven to dry. Rice cooked in this manner can be served in place of 
potatoes. It is also excellent served with tomatoes. To a cupful of 
boiled rice add half a cupful of strained tomato sauce which has been 
well seasoned with butter, salt and pepper. Mix lightly with a fork 
so as not to mash the grain. Serve as a vegetable or an entree. 

Parched Rice. — Prepare according to the foregoing recipe. Let it 
get cold, then separate the grains lightly with a fork on a hot dish. 
Put into a frying-pan with just enough butter to cover the bottom of 
the pan. When it is hot add a little of the rice at a time and fry it 
a delicate color. Shake the pan constantly to keep the grains sepa- 
rated. Remove the rice as it is done and spread on a paper to dry in 
an open oven. 

Rice Croquettes. — One cupful of boiled rice, one teaspoonful of salt, 
a little pepper, two tablespoonfuls of butter, half a cupful of milk, one 
egg, one tablespoonful of sugar. Put the milk on to boil and add the 
rice and seasoning. When it boils up add the egg well beaten. Stir 
one minute, then take off and cool. When cold shape and roll in egg 
and cracker crumbs and fry a light brown. 

Rice a la Princess. — Two cups of boiled rice, two eggs, half a cup of 
milk, pepper and salt, a boiled sweetbread minced fine or any cold meat 
minced and worked to a paste, with the pounded yolk of two boiled 
eggs, and well seasoned with salt, cayenne and a little lemon. Mix 
the eggs and milk and salt with the hot rice and stir in a saucepan 
until stiff. Let it get cold, make into thin round cakes, inclose a 
spoonful of the meat paste in the center of each and roll the rice ball 
round. Dip in beaten egg, then in cracker crumbs, and fry in lard. 
Drain and serve very hot. 



COOKING RECIPES 223 

Sausage and Rice— A Southern Recipe. — There is a good Southern 
breakfast dish which is prepared as follows: Wash and boil one and 
one-half cupfuls of rice. Fry one pound of sausage very brown, and 
add it to the rice when it is about half done. Season with salt and 
plenty of red pepper. 

Rice Balls for Breakfast. — Rice balls are made in this way: Cook 
one cupful of rice until it is done, then set it aside to cool. Mix 
together one cupful of chopped beef, three chopped onions, three or 
four cold Irish potatoes sliced; add enough eggs to allow this to be 
made into small balls, cover the balls with the rice, tie them in 
squares of cheese-cloth and let them boil for thirty minutes. They 
are to be served with good meat gravy. 

Rice and Cheese. — Boil a cup of rice in a quart of water slightly 
salted, and when half done add two tablespoonfuls of butter. By the 
time the rice is soft the water should have been soaked up entirely 
and each grain stand out whole in the mass. The rice should not be 
stirred but the saucepan should be shaken. Stir into the rice at this 
point two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese; salt and pepper to taste. 
Toss up with a fork until the cheese is dissolved and serve. 

Fried Rice with Cheese. — Cut slices of cold boiled rice and fry brown 
in butter. Sprinkle the hot slices with grated cheese, which may be a 
combination of dairy and Parmesan. This is excellent, served with 
fried tomatoes. Slice the tomatoes in rather thick slices, sprinkle 
with bread crumbs and fry carefully so as not to break the slices. 
After lifting them out of the frying-pan pour in a little cream, stir for 
a moment and pour the gravy over the tomato. 

Spanish Rice Served with a Roast. — -Put two tablespoonfuls of drip- 
pings into a saucepan and allow them to bubble. Add a half cupful 
of well washed rice and toss until browned. A sliced tomato and 
minced onion and a bit of garlic are also browned in the drippings. 
Cover with hot water, season with salt and pepper and cook thor- 
oughly, adding more water if necessary. Do not touch the rice until 
it is done. 

Casserole of Rice and Tomato. — Boil one cup of rice until tender in 
hot water to which has been added a little salt. Shake the saucepan 
from time to time. Drain dry, add a very little milk in which has 
been stirred a beaten egg, a teaspoonful of butter, a little pepper and 
salt. Simmer for five minutes, and, if the rice has not absorbed all 



224 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the milk, drain it again. Pile it around the inner edge of a flat dish, 
smooth it neatly, rounding the top into a sort of fence. Brush it over 
carefully with the beaten yolks of two eggs and set in the oven until 
firm. Drain more than half the juice from a can of tomatoes, season 
with a little chopped onion, pepper, salt and sugar. Stew twenty 
minutes. Stir in a tablespoonful of butter and two tablespoonfuls of 
fine bread crumbs. Stew three or four minutes to thicken it well and 
pour it within the hedge of rice. 

MACARONI AND SPAGHETTI 

Macaroni can be served either as a vegetable or an entree. The 
best macaroni has a fine, close grain and a clear, yellow color. It is 
usually mixed with cheese, tomato and various sauces. When maca- 
roni is to be boiled in long pieces to be used for timbales, hold the 
pieces in a bunch and lower them gradually in hot water; they will 
quickly soften and can be turned into a circle in the saucepan. 
They must be removed when tender and not cooked until they lose 
their form. When done drain off the hot water and pour on cold 
water for a few moments; then lay them straight on a cloth. Spa- 
ghetti is a small form of macaroni. It is boiled until tender in salted 
water and served in the same ways as macaroni. 

Macaroni Baked with Cheese. — Take as much macaroni as will half 
fill the dish in which it is to be served; break it into pieces two and a 
half or three inches long; put it into salty, boiling water and boil 
twelve or fifteen minutes, or until the macaroni is perfectly soft. 
Shake the saucepan frequently to prevent the macaroni from adher- 
ing to the bottom; turn into a colander to drain; then put it into a 
pudding-dish with butter, salt and grated cheese; cover it with milk 
and bake it until the milk is absorbed and the top brown; a table- 
spoonful or so of melted butter should be used to half a pound of 
macaroni. 

Macaroni au Gratin. — Boil the macaroni as directed, drain it in a col- 
ander, and then return it to the saucepan with butter and grated 
cheese; toss it over the fire until the butter is absorbed and the 
cheese melted; serve at once before the cheese has time to harden. 
A good mixture is made of Parmesan and Swiss cheese. Macaroni is 
also excellent served with tomato sauce. 

Macaroni in Bread Crumbs. — Take one-third package of macaroni 



COOKING RECIPES 225 

and break into two-inch lengths. Boil steadily from a half to three- 
quarters of an hour in plenty of salted water. When perfectly tender 
drain; then add one tablespoonful of butter and stir until macaroni has 
been coated with the butter. Now add one and one-half cups of 
browned, grated bread crumbs and serve as a vegetable. 

The Italian Way of Serving Spaghetti is to wash and parboil half a 
pound of it, drain it and add one pint of stewed tomatoes, mixed with 
a little stock or beef extract, some chopped onion or herb, also a 
small piece of ham cut in pieces. This must be cooked for twenty 
minutes; then strain and season before pouring it over the spaghetti. 
It is much improved if a clove or garlic is added to the sauce; this 
sauce should be stirred well over the spaghetti and grated Parmesan 
cheese should be served with it. 

Macaroni Timbale. — Cook until tender in salted water long pieces 
of spaghetti; put into the water slowly, and it can then be turned so 
it will not break; lay the pieces straight on a napkin to cook; butter 
well a dome-shaped mold, wind the spaghetti around the mold, 
holding it in place, as you proceed, with a layer of forced meat; fill the 
center with boiled macaroni and cheese; mix well with a reduced 
bechamel sauce, or fill the timbale with a salpicon of sweetbreads and 
mushrooms. Make the layer of forced meat thick enough to give the 
timbales stability. Cover it with a greased paper, stand it in a pan of 
hot water and toast in a slow oven for thirty minutes. 

Macaroni with Rice. — Take one cup of cooked rice, one and one- 
half cups macaroni (that has been boiled in salted water), one pint of 
cream sauce, one-half cup of grated cheese. Into the cream sauce 
put one-half the cheese. Grease a pan with butter, put a layer of 
macaroni, then one of sauce, then one of rice, then sauce, repeat; 
lastly put a few cracker crumbs with the remainder of cheese and 
sprinkle on top. Bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes. 

GREEN PEPPERS 

Stuffed Peppers can be served as a vegetable or as an entree. Use 
peppers of uniform size, cut a piece off the stem end, or cut them in 
two lengthwise and remove the seeds and partitions. Put them in 
boiling water for five minutes to parboil; fill each one with a stuffing 
made of equal parts of softened bread crumbs and minced meat well 
seasoned with salt, butter and a few drops of onion juice. Place them 



226 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

in a baking-dish with water, or better, stock half an inch deep, and 
bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Remove them carefully 
to another dish. 

Green Pepper Salad. — Two green peppers, a pound of cold veal and 
a slice of boiled ham and bologna sausage and the grated pulp of an 
onion. Cut the peppers and meat fine and mix them with the onion, 
cover with a French dressing made with Tarragon vinegar, and let it 
stand a couple of hours. Drain thoroughly and serve with mayon- 
naise dressing. 

Peppers Stuffed with Mushrooms. — Wild mushrooms may be used. 
Wash, cut off the stems and peel the tops of the mushrooms, drop 
each one as soon as prepared into water to which has been added the 
juice of half a lemon. When all are ready to cook, drain and put 
into a saucepan. To one pint of mushrooms add two tablespoonfuls 
of butter, a saltspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of lemon juice. 
Cover closely and let simmer fifteen minutes. Thicken with a des- 
sertspoonful of flour and add slowly three tablespoonfuls of cream 
and a grate of nutmeg. Cut out the stem ends and remove the seeds 
of five peppers, either green or red; fill with the mixture and serve. 

CUCUMBERS 

Stewed Cucumbers on Toast. — Peel and cut into half-inch slices four 
targe cucumbers, cover with boiling salted water, let boil fifteen 
minutes, drain. Put one and a half teacupfuls of milk in a pan, adding 
a teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of butter and two dashes of 
pepper; as soon as it boils up put in cucumber slices, let them get hot 
and serve on toast. Garnish with small red radishes. 

Cucumber and Sweetbread Salad. — Drop the sweetbreads into cold 
water, changing the water as often as it becomes discolored; when 
quite white drain and place them in a saucepan; add one slice of 
onion, a blade of mace, one-half of a teaspoonful of salt and sufficient 
boiling water to cover. Simmer slowly for twenty minutes and then 
drop into cold water until chilled; drain, and with a silver knife cut 
into half-inch dice, add an equal measure of dice and drained cucum- 
b(rs, mixed with a mayonnaise or cream dressing and serve in nests 
of lettuce and cucumber boats. To prepare the boats, cut the cucum- 
bt. 's in halves lengthwise and scoop out the centers; trim each end 



COOKING RECIPES 227 

into a point, fill with cracked ice and drop into ice water until 
needed; let them become very crisp. Dry thoroughly before using 
and fill them with salad. 

MUSHROOMS 

Stewed Mushrooms. — Cut the stems off just below the frill, peel and 
place them gill side up in a granite pan. Sprinkle a little salt over 
the gills and let them stand an hour or more, cover with perfectly 
sweet cream or rich milk, rub a little flour into a generous lump of 
butter, add to the mushrooms and cream and set the whole on the 
stove where they will cook gently for fifteen or twenty minutes. 
Serve immediately. 

Baked Mushrooms. — Peel and stem the mushrooms. Sprinkle a 
little salt and pepper on the gills and place them gill side up in a 
granite pan. Put a small lump of butter on each, cover the pan with 
a granite top or plate and set in a hot oven for fifteen or twenty 
minutes. Serve in dish in which they are cooked. 

Baked Mushrooms— Another Recipe. — Peel and stew large mushrooms. 
Line a deep baking-dish with thin slices of toast, each of which has 
been dipped for an instant in seasoned beef stock. Fill the dish with 
layers of mushrooms, sprinkling each layer with salt, paprika and bits 
of butter. When the dish is full pour over all a gill of stock and bake 
covered for twenty minutes. Uncover and cook for five minutes 
more before sending to the table. 

Fried Mushrooms. — Peel and stem the largest mushrooms you can 
get. Have your skillet smoking hot. Put in enough butter to keep 
the skillet from getting dry and place your mushrooms gill side down 
in the skillet. As soon as they are nicely browned turn and sprinkle 
a little salt over them. As soon as they are a nice brown on each 
side take up and pour the gravy over them. Put a small lump of 
butter on the gill side of each; send to the table immediately. Always 
have a hot platter on which to dish your mushrooms. 

Mushrooms and Macaroni. — Cook a quarter pound of macaroni until 
very tender in salted water and reserve. Put in a stew-pan a table- 
spoonful of butter, a pint of wild mushrooms that have been washed, 
peeled, then soaked in milk for two hours; strain and pour the milk 
(a cupful) on the macaroni, adding to it a saltspoonful of salt, a table- 
spoonful of grated cheese, a slice of lemon and a bay leaf. Reheat, 



228 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

adding a gill of cream and the mushrooms, which have been dusted 
with salt and pepper, lifting the latter through very carefully. 

Mushroom Sandwiches.— Mix with one cup of boiled, chopped 
button mushrooms the same quantity of cold cooked tongue, which 
has been chopped fine; season with one-half teaspoonful of sale, dress 
with French mustard. Spread between thin slices of buttered brown 
bread lined with crisp lettuce leaves and put together in pairs. 

CHESTNUTS 

Scalloped Chestnuts. — Hull one pint chestnuts; place in bowl and 
pour boiling water on them to take off skins. Boil until soft; mash 
fine, add lump of butter size of egg, one-half tablespoonful celery 
chopped very fine, one hard boiled egg chopped very fine, one beaten 
raw egg, saltspoonful salt, dash pepper. Mix thoroughly. Have 
clean and dry clam shells, butter the inside, fill them to the edges. 
Make a hole in the middle in which to place a large oyster. Bake 
until a light yellow. Serve in shell with lemon. Deep oyster shells 
or scallop shells will do. 

Chestnut Sandwiches. — Simmer one large cupful of chestnuts in 
salted water until tender. Drain them and mash to a smooth paste, 
season with a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a grating of nutmeg and 
enough whipped cream to make a smooth paste, which will spread 
easily. Butter slices of brown bread, spread with the mixture, press 
together and trim nicely. A lettuce leaf may be placed between the 
slices with the nut mixture. 

BREAKFAST CEREALS 

Farina. — To a pint of boiling water add half a pint of farina, and 
when this boils and is very thick add a pint of milk, cook for ten 
minutes longer in a double boiler and serve with either cream or 
milk. Season the water in which it is cooked with one teaspoonful 
of salt. 

Hominy Patties.— To a pint of cold boiled hominy add two table- 
spoonfuls of melted butter and mash fine; to this add two well beaten 
eggs, saltspoonful of salt and dash of paprika and a little milk if 
necessary to mold into small pats. Place these on a buttered pan, 
dust with grated cheese and brown in a hot oven. 



COOKING RECIPES 229 

Oatmeal. — To obtain the fine nutty flavor of oatmeal it should be 
cooked for several hours in a double boiler, after first being brought 
to the boiling point over the fire. Three cups of boiling water to one 
of oatmeal and a teaspoonful of salt is the right proportion. It 
should be cooked the day before needed. Enough for several 
mornings may be cooked at one time in cool weather, which is the 
only time that oatmeal should be eaten, on account of its heating 
qualities. Serve with cream and a very little sugar. Very different 
from oatmeal as it is usually served. 

Oatmeal Sandwiches. — Fine steel cut oats, cooked thoroughly the 
evening before in double boiler and heated up, without disturbing, in 
same vessel in morning. They must be dry, so grains will fall apart 
like rice. Spread large spoonful in individual dish. On this spread 
spoonful of fruit jam, butter, or preserve that is not too juicy. Many 
kinds of fruit are suitable. On top put second spoonful of oatmeal, 
and serve with cream. 

Oatmeal in a New Manner. — Boil a pound of oatmeal in four quarts 
of pot liquor for one hour, adding a tablespoonful of salt, a salt- 
spoonful of pepper and an ounce of butter. Stir this frequently to 
prevent it from scorching. 

Cook Your Oatmeal Thoroughly. — A physician asserts that nothing is 
more ruinous to the digestion than breakfasting on half-cooked 
cereals. Any cereal, according to him, ought to be home cooked for 
at least five hours. This can easily be done over night. Long cook- 
ing also makes the food more agreeable to the palate. 

EGG SUGGESTIONS 

Food Value of Eggs Compared with Meat — Six large eggs will weigh 
about a pound. As a flesh producer one pound of eggs is equal to 
one pound of beef. About one-third of the weight of an egg is solid 
nutriment, which is more than can be said of meat. There are no 
bones and tough pieces that have to be laid aside. Practically an egg 
is animal food, and yet there is none of the disagreeable work of the 
butcher necessary to obtain it. Eggs at average prices are among 
the cheapest and most nutritious articles of diet. Like milk, an egg 
is complete food in itself, containing everything that is necessary for 
the development of a perfect animal. It is also easily digested if not 
damaged in cooking. 



2 3 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

How to Take Stains from Discolored Eggs. — The stains may be 
removed from discolored eggs by soaking a short time in vinegar and 
then washing them. 

To Detect Bad Eggs. — To tell whether eggs are good or bad put 
them in water. If the large end turns up they are not fresh. This is 
an infallible rule. 

Here is a Suggestion about frying eggs: Have the lard hot and then 
put in the eggs, then pour in one-fourth cup of water; cover and the 
eggs will cook without dipping the lard on top of them. 

The Egg Yolks Left from cakes may be kept by pouring cold water 
over them to exclude air, and used for dark cake, omelets or mayon- 
naise when needed. They will keep fresh a surprising length of time 
in a bowl of water. 

The Yolk of an Egg Well Beaten is a very good substitute for cream 
in coffee. An egg will season three cups. 

Eggs Boiled Twenty Minutes are more easily digested than if boiled 
ten. They are dry and mealy and are readily acted upon by the 
gastric juice. 

Hoarseness and Tickling in the Throat are relieved by a gargle of 
the white of an egg beaten to a froth with a tumblerful of warm 
sweetened water. 

Beat an Egg Fifteen Minutes with a pint of milk and a pint of water, 
sweetened with granulated sugar, bring to boiling point, and when 
cold use as a drink. It is excellent for a cold. 

EGG RECIPES 

Eggs on Toast. — Have ready on hot platters as many slices of 
buttered toast as wanted. Take sufficient amount of cream to cover 
the toast; put on stove in saucepan and heat. Break into this as 
many eggs as slices of bread. Cook until eggs are well set. Lay an 
egg on each slice of toast. Place on each a bit of butter. Season 
with salt and pepper. Then pour the cream over all and serve 
immediately. 

Egg Chops. — Take five hard boiled eggs, put yolks through sieve 
and chop whites. Cook one tablespoonful of butter with two of flour 
and add one cup of milk; season with pepper and salt. When 
smooth and thick take from fire, and when nearly cold add yolks 
and whites of eggs and a little onion juice. When cold mold into 



COOKING RECIPES 231 

shape of chops, roll in beaten egg and crumbs, fry in deep fat until a 
delicate brown. Arrange on chop platter and pour bechamel sauce 
around them. 

Egg Omelet. — Take three eggs, beat the whites and yolks separately; 
add to the yolks one cup milk and one heaping teaspoonful flour, 
one-half a teaspoonful salt; then stir in the whites, which have been 
beaten as for cake. Melt a tablespoonful of butter in a spider, pour 
in, and let it get a rich brown on the bottom, then set in oven a few 
minutes. 

Baked Omelet. — Dissolve teaspoonful of corn-starch in a gill of milk 
and add a pinch of salt. Beat six eggs light — yolks and whites sep- 
arately — add the corn-starch and the milk to the yolks, lightly fold in 
the stiffened whites and turn into a greased and heated pudding-dish. 
Cook in a hot oven for ten minutes. Serve immediately. 

Salt Pork Omelets. — The pork must be cut into thin strips and 
freshened in milk, then fried crisp, and drained. The omelet is 
made as usual, and the strips of fat pork folded into it. 

Snow Omelet. — Put a pint of milk in a double boiler. When hot 
stir in a half cupful of white corn-meal, cook for five minutes and 
take from the fire; add a tablespoonful of butter, one-third teaspoon- 
ful of salt and one cupful of seasoned and tender boiled rice that has 
been made smooth in a little of the hot mush; mix well. Beat the 
whites of five eggs to a stiff froth, stir them lightly into the mixture, 
turn into an oiled baking-dish, sprinkle over with fine bread crumbs 
and bake in a moderately quick oven for thirty minutes. 

Corn Bread Omelet. — Pour one cupful of cold milk over one of 
crumbed cold corn bread and let it stand five minutes. Add the 
beaten yolks of three eggs and one-quarter teaspoonful of salt; beat 
well and fold in lightly the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Cook a 
little more slowly than an ordinary egg omelet, butter and dust with 
pepper. Fold over and remove to hot platter. Garnish with cress 
and parsley. 

Omelet Maryland. — Chop very fine six olives. Put one dozen pecans 
through the meat grinder, stir together with the olives and add 
enough minced breast of chicken to make half a cupful. Just before 
frying mix this into the beaten yolks of five eggs to which one cup of 
warm milk has been added. Lastly stir in the five stiffly beaten 
whites to which one-half teaspoonful of salt has been added before 



232 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

beating. Put in a very hot spider in which a teaspoonful of butter 
has been melted. Grind the pepper grinder over it, and serve piping 
hot as soon as it sets. 

Celery and Parsley Omelet— Into a bowl break six eggs, beating until 
light and foamy; add a half cup of milk, two teaspoonfuls each of 
chopped parsley and celery leaves and one teaspoonful of chopped 
onion, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt and three shakes of pepper. 
Stir all thoroughly together and pour into a frying-pan in which a 
tablespoonful of butter is melted and hot. Stir until the eggs become 
set. Serve on a dainty platter; garnish with parsley sprigs. 

Peach Omelet. — Beat the yolks of four eggs until thick, add a table- 
spoonful each of sugar and lemon juice, the grated rind of a lemon 
and a saltspoonful of salt. Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and 
fold lightly into the other ingredients. Heat a tablespoonful of butter 
in a frying-pan and pour in the eggs. As the omelet begins to 
thicken break it in several places with a fork, and when done spread 
with three peaches, peeled, thinly sliced and sprinkled with two table- 
spoonfuls of sugar; fold the omelet over and set in a hot oven one 
minute. Slip on a hot platter and serve. 

Strawberry Omelet. — Break four eggs and add a dessertspoonful of 
sugar and a tablespoonful of brandy. Heat very gently to blood 
warmth a small cup of strawberry marmalade. Cook the omelet, 
pour the warmed marmalade on the center, fold, slip to a hot dish 
and serve. 

CHEESE 

Cheese Souffle. — Melt in a saucepan two level teaspoonfuls of 
butter, stir in one heaped tablespoonful of flour, and when smooth 
add gradually one-half cup of hot milk, one-half teaspoonful of salt 
and a dash of cayenne. Then stir in one cup of grated cheese, and 
when melted and smooth remove from the fire and add the well 
beaten yolks of three eggs. Let the mixture cool and beat the 
whites of three eggs till stiff and dry. Fold them in lightly and turn 
the mixture into a buttered baking-dish and bake them twenty-five 
to thirty minutes. Serve immediately, as like all souffle it falls quickly. 
When served as a cheese course at a dinner the mixture may be 
baked in individual dishes or ramekins. 

Cheese Sauce. — Melt a tablespoonful of butter, add two level tea- 



COOKING RECIPES 233 

spoonfuls of corn-starch, mix well and pour on slowly three-quarters 
of a cup of milk; add half a pound of soft American cheese cut fine. 
Season with a half teaspoonful of salt and saltspoonful each of 
mustard and cayenne. Use more salt if liked, and mild cheese is best 
to use. As soon as the cheese is melted add the beaten yolk of an 
egg and serve. 

A Welsh Rarebit that is made without liquor has a tablespoonful of 
corn-starch stirred smooth in a tablespoonful of melted butter. Stir 
in a half cupful of this cream, and as the sauce thickens add half a 
pound of cheese cut fine, a quarter of a teaspoonful each of salt and 
mustard and a little cayenne. 

Cheese Croquettes. — Grate half a pound of American cheese. Mix 
in it a scant tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of milk, an egg 
beaten enough to break it, half a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of 
paprika. Mix it to a smooth paste and mold it into small croquettes, 
using a tablespoonful of the paste for each croquette. The above 
proportions will make eight croquettes. Add a little milk to the yolk 
of an egg and roll the croquettes in this and then in cracker crumbs. 
Fry a minute in smoking hot fat. Serve at once. 

Cheese Cakes. — Sift a cupful and a half of cottage cheese, add one- 
third of a cupful of sugar, four tablespoonfuls of cream, one table- 
spoonful of melted butter, the grated rind and juice of a lemon and 
three beaten eggs; beat until smooth. Bake in small tins of fanciful 
shapes, lined with pastry, until the mixture is well puffed. Serve 
when partly cooled. 

BISCUITS AND ROLLS 

Tea Biscuits. — Four cupfuls of sifted flour, three teaspoonfuls of 
baking-powder, one teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of butter. 
Add the salt and baking-powder to the flour and sift them. Rub in 
the butter. With a fork stir in lightly and quickly sufficient milk to 
make a soft dough. The dough must be just stiff enough to roll- 
Flour the board well, turn the dough onto it and lightly roll it to a 
thickness of half an inch. Cut it into small circles, brush the top 
with milk and bake in a quick oven twenty to thirty minutes. 

Drop Biscuit — One pint of flour, one tablespoonful of butter, one 
saltspoonful of salt, two teaspoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful of 
baking-powder; mix and add one cupful of milk. Drop on buttered 



234 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

tins, by the spoonful, about two inches apart and bake ten minutes in 
a hot oven. 

Rusks. — One cupful of scalded milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter, 
three tablespoonfuls of sugar, two eggs, half a cake compressed yeast, 
half a teaspoonful of salt, flour. Make a sponge consisting of the 
milk, salt and yeast. When it is full of bubbles add the butter, sugar 
and well beaten eggs. Stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. 
Knead it for twenty minutes. Let it rise to double its bulk, then 
mold it into balls the size of half an egg. Place them rather close 
together in a baking-tin and let them rise until very light. 

Tea Cakes. — Three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, half a teacup of 
sugar, one egg. Beat together, then add one teacupful of milk, one 
teaspoonful of soda, two of cream of tartar. Stir to a froth, add 
sifted flour enough to make a stiff batter. Bake half an hour in a 
quick oven. 

Luncheon Rolls. — Scald half a cup of milk and add to it two table- 
spoonfuls of sugar and a saltspoonful of salt. Dissolve half a cake of 
compressed yeast in a quarter of a cup of lukewarm water and add to 
the milk, when it is lukewarm, a scant cup of flour. Cover, set in 
a warm place and let rise. Then add two tablespoonfuls of softened 
butter, a well beaten egg, grated rind of a lemon and flour enough to 
make a good dough. Set to rise again, and when light roll out to an 
inch in thickness, cut with small round cutter, place in buttered 
biscuit-pans, cover and let rise again. Brush with melted butter and 
milk and bake. 

Hot Soda Biscuit. — Take a quart of flour, a little heaped teaspoon- 
ful of soda, salt to taste, and a heaping tablespoonful of lard. Make 
up with buttermilk, knead as little as possible and bake in an ordinary 
hot stove. They will be done in a few minutes. 

English Bun Loaf. — Take a cup of bread dough at the second 
raising, add half a cup of butter softened, one egg beaten, half a tea- 
spoonful soda dissolved in a little milk, half a teaspoonful ground 
cinnamon and a quarter of a teaspoonful of nutmeg, half a cup of 
brown sugar and half a cup of seeded and chopped raisins floured. 
Knead a few minuter and make into a long loaf or rolls and let stand 
until very light — about half an hour. Bake in a moderate oven. 
When done cover with melted sugar. 

Banbury Cakes. — Make a nice puff paste, roll it out the usual thick- 



COOKING RECIPES 235 

ness for pies, then cut into pieces with a large biscuit cutter; pile one 
tablespoonful of the filling on half of each round of paste, wet the 
edges and fold the other half over; press edges together; bake in a 
hot oven for fifteen minutes. Filling for same: Two cupfuls of 
chopped raisins, one cupful of sugar, one egg, one lemon; mix 
thoroughly. 

German Coffee Cake. — Make a sponge with one quart of warm milk, 
half a cake of compressed yeast dissolved in lukewarm water and flour; 
cover and let stand over night in a warm place. In the morning add 
a scant cup of butter, a level teaspoonful of salt, one cup sugar, half a 
teaspoonful grated nutmeg and two eggs beaten, with sufficient flour 
to make a dough as soft as can be handled. Knead well for fifteen 
minutes and set in a warm place to rise. When light roll out in 
sheets about an inch thick and let rise to double the bulk: Cover the 
top with rich sweet or sour cream, sprinkle with sugar and ground 
cinnamon and bake a light brown. It requires from half to three- 
quarters of an -hour. If the cake browns too quickly cover with 
buttered white paper. Raisins may be added if desired, and the top 
covered with chopped, blanched almonds mixed with sugar. If pre- 
ferred, the dough may be twisted and shaped into rings instead of 
being baked in sheets. 

Another Recipe for Coffee Cake. — The following has been tried and 
found good: One cup of butter, four and one-half cups of flour, two 
teaspoonsful baking-powder, two cups brown sugar, one cup of strong 
coffee (put in cold), one cup of raisins (chopped), one cup molasses, 
two teaspoonsful of cinnamon, three eggs and one teaspoonful of 
cloves. 



CHAPTER XI 
BREAD. MUFFINS, CAKE, PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS 

Bread Suggestions — Muffins — Dumplings for Roasts and Soups — Cakes — 
Gingerbread — Pancakes — Pies — Puddings, Desserts and Sauces — How 
to Prepare Fruit — Fruit Trifles — Creams, Custards and Puffs— Fruit 
Flavors — Preserving and Canning — Keeping Canned Fruit — Candies 
and Sweetmeats — Beverages— Cider, Etc. 

BAKING BREAD 

As bread is the staff of life, so is the baking of it the acme of 
cooking. While many families, especially in the cities, depend 
largely upon the bakers for their bread supply, yet every housekeeper 
recognizes the necessity of having good homemade bread. 

Flour should always be kept dry and sifted. Bread made with 
milk will be whiter and better than where water is used. The milk 
should be boiled, not simply heated, and not allowed to be below a 
lukewarm temperature when mixed with the flour. Milk bread 
means little or no shortening and less flour is required than in the case 
where water is used. It also requires less kneading. 

One cup of yeast means wet yeast. If dry is used the cup should 
be filled with warm water. Bread and biscuits should rise in a mod- 
erately warm place. If too hot it will be sour. If too cold it will be 
heavy. If dough should become sour a teaspoonful of soda will help 
it, but this should only be used in exceptional cases. Bread should 
rise to twice its original size before it is ready to bake. Make small 
loaves. If the loaf is too large for the pan it will be a bad shape. A 
hotter oven is necessary for biscuits and rolls than is required for 
bread, though the former take a longer time to rise. Mix a little 
sugar or butter with the rising. This will keep the bread moist. 
Never put a cloth around bread if it is in a tin box. Baking-powder 
or other chemicals with salt should be mixed thoroughly with the 
flour by putting all twice through the sieve together. An even tea- 
spoonful of baking-powder to a cupful of flour is good proportion. 

236 



COOKING RECIPES 237 

One teaspoonful of soda and two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar are 
equal to two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder Brush the tops of the 
loaves with butter before putting in the oven. If you wish to give 
the loaf a glazed appearance brush with beaten egg or sweet milk. 
Test the oven by putting in a little flour on a tin. If it browns in one 
minute the oven is at right heat. Keep the heat steady. 

Recipe. — Half a cake of compressed yeast, one cake of dry yeast, 
or one cupful of soft yeast. If either compressed or dry yeast is used 
mix with warm water. Dissolve two tablespoonfuls of lard and two 
tablespoonfuls of white sugar in one quart of warm water. Then 
slowly stir in a pint and one-half of flour. Add the yeast and then a 
teaspoonful of soda. Beat hard and thoroughly and set to rise in a 
moderately warm place where the temperature will not fall during 
the night. In the morning have two quarts of fresh flour sifted into 
a bread tray adding a teaspoonful of fine salt. Make a hole in the 
middle of the heap and pour in the risen sponge. Then work the 
flour down into it with the hands. If it is then too soft add more 
flour. If too stiff, rinse out the bowl in which the sponge was set with 
a little lukewarm water and use this. Always flour the hands and 
knead hard toward the center of the mass which should be fre- 
quently turned around. Knead long and briskly. From twenty 
minutes to half an hour is the right length of time. When the dough 
is of the right texture cover with a cloth and leave it four or five 
hours to rise in a warm place. Afterward knead again for ten 
minutes or so, divide into loaves, place in well greased pans and set 
the pans in a warm place to rise for an hour. Bake one hour in a 
moderately hot oven. 

MUFFINS 

Easy Muffins. — Two cupfuls of flour, one cupful of milk, one level 
tablespoonful of butter, two eggs (beaten separately), one-half tea- 
spoonful of salt, two even teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Mix thor- 
oughly the baking-powder and salt with the flour. Stir the milk and 
yolks together; add the butter, melted, then the flour, and lastly fold 
in the whipped whites. Turn into hot gem-pans and bake in a very 
hot oven for fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve immediately. 

Bread Crumb Muffins. — To a plain muffin batter add fine bread 
crumbs, using one-half crumbs instead of all wheat flour. 



238 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Rice Muffins. — One pint of milk, one quart of flour, one pint of 
boiled rice, three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one teaspoonful 
of salt, one of soda, two of cream of tartar. Mix the salt, sugar, soda 
and cream of tartar with the flour and rub through a sieve. Beat the 
eggs and add the milk; stir gradually into the flour. When a 
smooth, light paste add the rice. Beat thoroughly. Bake thirty-five 
minutes in a buttered pan. Three dozen muffins can be made from 
quantities given. 

Squash Muffins. — Beat two eggs, stir into them one cup of sweet 
milk, one cup of cooked strained squash, two cups of flour, one tea- 
spoonful of baking-powder, one level teaspoonful of melted butter. 
Bake in muffin-pans in hot oven thirty minutes. If left-over seasoned 
squash is used, omit one-half the salt, otherwise use one level tea- 
spoonful. 

Cranberry Muffins. — Sift together two cups of flour, four level tea- 
spoonfuls of baking-powder, half a cup of sugar and one teaspoonful 
of salt. Beat one egg, add one cup and a half of milk, and stir into 
the dry ingredients. Stir in also two tablespoonfuls of melted butter 
or other shortening, and one cup of cranberries, cut in halves. Bake 
in a hot oven twenty minutes. 

Rye Muffins.— One pint of rye meal (not flour), one pint of wheat 
flour, one pint of milk, half a cupful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, 
one of soda, two of cream of tartar and two eggs. Put the meal in a 
mixing bowl. Put the flour and other ingredients in a sieve, mix 
thoroughly and sift. Beat the eggs light, add the milk and pour on 
the dry ingredients. Beat well. Butter the muffin-tins and bake 
twenty minutes in a quick oven. The quantities given will make 
twenty-four muffins. 

Rye Muffins. — Two cups of rye flour, one-half cup white flour, 
one-half cup of any cereal left from breakfast, one tablespoonful 
sugar, one heaping tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful salt and 
one-half yeast cake dissolved in one and three-quarter cups ofjvater 
or milk. Beat well and let rise over night. In the morning beat 
down, put in gem-pans, let rise one-half hour and bake twenty 
minutes. 

Date Muffins. — Yolks of two eggs beaten light and two cupfuls milk; 
sift three cups flour, add a half teaspoonful salt and three level tea- 
spoonfuls baking-powder before sifting. Stir the milk and eggs into 



COOKING RECIPES 239 

the flour with a tablespoonful of melted butter and one-half cupful of 
chopped dates (floured). Beat till smooth and then carefully fold in 
the whites of the eggs, which have been beaten to a stiff froth. Pour 
into hot gem-pans, well buttered, and bake in a moderate oven half 
an hour. 

GRAHAM FLOUR RECIPES 

Graham Bread. — Scald one and one-half cupfuls of milk, turn into a 
large bowl and add one cupful of cold water, two tablespoonfuls of 
molasses and one heaping teaspoonful of salt. Add to this mixture, 
which should be lukewarm, one-third of a yeast cake dissolved in 
three tablespoonfuls of lukewarm water, and sift in sufficient Graham 
flour to make a drop batter. Beat hard until smooth, then set the 
bowl in a pan of warm water, cover closely and stand it in a warm 
place until the batter is very light and filled with bubbles. Sift in 
more flour until you have a soft dough, then turn out on a well 
floured board and knead until the dough is very smooth to the touch 
and does not adhere readily to the board or hands. Return to the 
bowl, renew the hot water, cover as before and stand it aside until the 
dough has fully doubled in bulk. Divide into two equal parts and 
knead each well until the air bubbles seem of uniform size, then mold 
into shape and place in a greased pan. Brush the top with water and 
let it stand until the dough begins to rise, then bake in a moderate 
oven. If the pan is of the shape popularly known as "brick loaf" the 
bread will be done in from fifty minutes to an hour. 

Graham Gems. — Two cupfuls of graham flour, one cupful of milk, 
one cupful of water, two eggs, half a teaspoonful of salt, one table- 
spoonful of sugar. Mix the dry ingredients together; beat the eggs 
separately. Mix the milk with the salt and sugar; add the water, 
then the flour; fold in the whipped whites, put at once into very hot 
greased gem-pans, filling them half full; bake in a hot oven thirty 
minutes. 

CORN-MEAL RECIPES 

Old-time Poppets. — Sift together one teacupful of corn-meal, one 
teacupful of flour, two level teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, the same 
of sugar and one-half teaspoonful of salt. Rub in a tablespoonful of 
butter. Beat one egg until light, add one pint of milk. Turn the 



24<5 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

meal, etc., into the milk and beat rapidly three minutes. It may need 
a little more milk, as all flour does not mix alike; it should make a 
batter easily poured. Bake in gem-pans in quick oven. * 

Corn Bread. — For a family of five place two heavy iron or steel 
spiders in a very hot oven with three or four tablespoonfuls of melted 
grease; leave them in ten minutes, so that the pores of the spider are 
greased well to prevent sticking. In the meantime beat two eggs 
well, pour them into one pint of thick sour milk, cream would be 
much better, one tablespoonful of salt, one and one-half teaspoonfuls 
of soda sifted, with corn-meal added last, making the batter quite 
thin. Put it in the hot spider. Batter being thin and spider hot will 
make the corn bread turn out not only a lovely brown, but it will be 
quite as'light as sweet cake. Keep hot fire while baking. 

Corn Bread — Another Recipe. — One cupful of fine corn-meal sifted, 
one and one-half cupfuls of milk, two eggs, one tablespoonful of 
butter, one tablespoonful of baking-powder, teaspoonful of sugar. 
Scald the milk and pour it onto the sifted meal. Let it cool, then 
add the melted butter, salt, sugar, baking-powder and yolks of the 
eggs. Stir it quickly and thoroughly together, then fold in the whites 
of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Bake in a flat pan in a hot oven 
for thirty minutes. 

Pumpkin Corn Bread. — Beat one egg light, add a tablespoonful of 
sugar, one level teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water, 
one pint sour milk, one cup of well-cooked pumpkin, one scant tea- 
spoonful of salt. Stir in corn-meal until quite stiff, turn into hot, 
well-greased pan and bake forty or fifty minutes in hot oven. 

Rice Corn Bread. — One large cup boiled rice, one large cup corn- 
meal, one pint milk, three eggs, one tablespoonful melted butter, one 
teaspoonful salt, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder. Bake twenty 
minutes in quick oven. 

Corn Gems. — Two eggs, one cupful of corn flour, half a cupful of 
white flour, one tablespoonful of butter, one cupful of milk, one tea- 
spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful baking-powder. Break in the yolks 
of the eggs; add the milk, salt and melted butter; mix them well 
together, then add the two kinds of flour. Beat the whites of the 
eggs to a stiff froth; when they are ready add the baking-powder to 
the flour mixture and then fold in lightly the whipped whites. Turn 
at once into warm gem-pans, a tablespoonful of batter into each one, 




B eo- 



^v-0 



COOKING RECIPES 241 

and bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes. This recipe can be used 
for any kind of flour. 

MISCELLANEOUS BREAD RECIPES 

Oat Cake. — Mix oatmeal which is ground fine with a little salt and 
enough water to make a stiff dough. Roll it on a floured board to 
one-eighth of an inch thickness and bake it in one sheet in a slow 
oven without browning, until dry and hard. It should be gray in 
color. When done break it into irregular pieces. This is a Scotch 
dish, and in Scotland is made with fine oat flour, which is difficult to 
obtain in this country. 

Mush Bread. — Heat a pint of milk in a double boiler and when hot 
stir in enough white corn-meal to make a thick mush. Cover and 
cook twenty minutes. Take from fire, add one tablespoonful butter, 
and when cool the yolks of three eggs. Beat whites to stiff froth, 
add carefully to the mush, adding at the same time one-half tea- 
spoonful salt. Turn into greased baking-dish and bake half hour in 
a moderate oven. 

Cereal Loaf.— Mix cupful each of rice and oatmeal left from break- 
fast, add one egg, also a little milk if needed; pack in a mold. At 
lunch time slice, roll in finely sifted meal and fry a crisp brown in a 
little butter. 

Peanut Biscuit — Mix together dry one quart flour, three teaspoon- 
fuls baking-powder, one-half cupful (roasted) peanuts, chopped, one 
teaspoonful of salt. Add one-fourth cupful melted butter, rubbing it 
well with the flour, and sufficient sweet milk to make a soft dough. 
Knead as little as possible. Bake in a quick oven. 

Cheese Cakes. — Roll out puff paste, not very thin; baste it with ice 
water. Spread half of it with grated cheese. Lap the other half 
over and pass the rolling-pin over it lightly; cut into strips four 
inches long and two inches wide. Bake in a quick oven, and sprinkle 
the tops with grated cheese. 

Cheese Fingers. — Make as for rich baking-powder biscuit, with the 
addition of four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese well rubbed into the 
flour. Roll out a half-inch thick and cut in narrow strips. 

Bread Sticks. — Any bread dough may be used, though that with 
shortening is preferred. After it is kneaded enough to be elastic cut 
it into pieces half the size of an egg, roll it on the board into a stick 



242 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the size of a pencil and a foot long. Lay the strips on a floured 
baking-tin or sheet. Let them rise a very little and bake in a moder- 
ate oven, so they will dry without browning. Serve with bouillon or 
soups or with tea. 

DUMPLINGS FOR ROASTS AND SOUPS 

Norfolk Dumplings. — Make a very light dough with baking-powder, 
using milk and a little salt. Work this into balls the size of small 
dumplings, then drop into a pan of boiling water and closely cover. 
Let the dumplings boil for twenty minutes without removing the lid, 
then ascertain if they are sufficiently cooked by sticking a fork into 
one. If the fork comes out clear the dumpling is done. Tear each 
dumpling apart with a fork as it becomes heavy by its own steam. 
They may be served with sirup or meat gravy. 

Togus Loaf. — One cup of flour, one cup of corn-meal, one-half cup 
of molasses, one-half cup of sweet milk, one cup of sour milk, one 
level teaspoonful of salt and the same of soda. Mix the sweet milk, 
molasses and sour milk together, dissolve the soda in a little hot 
water and add it and the salt to the milk; stir in the flour and lastly 
the corn-meal; pour into a buttered brown-bread pan and steam for 
two hours. Serve hot with the meat. 

Never Failing Dumplings. — Ingredients: Flour, salt, butter, baking- 
powder, egg and milk. Beat one egg well in a cup, then fill up with 
milk. Stir in one pint of flour, a pinch of salt, one tablespoonful 
melted butter and one teaspoonful of baking-powder. Drop from 
spoon on buttered dish and steam tightly covered one-half hour. 
They are perfect. 

Yorkshire Pudding. — One cup of flour into which mix one egg and 
one-quarter teaspoonful of salt; then thin with milk until about the 
consistency of thick cream. Bake in an oven, constantly basting with 
drippings from roast. An old English recipe. 

CAKE 
A Simple Cake with Many Uses. — Take one cupful of granulated 
sugar, three eggs and one cupful of flour in which has been sifted one 
heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder. Beat these ingredients 
thoroughly together, then add flavoring and a scant half cupful of 
boiling water. Bake in shallow tins. 



COOKING RECIPES 243 

Follow this recipe and you will have a very nice sponge cake, 
which is not so large that it cannot be eaten before it becomes dry. 
Bake it in layers with jelly between and it is delicious. It can be 
made into cocoanut cake and into chocolate cake and both cakes are 
good. Beat the yolk of an egg with sugar and spread it between the 
layers, making a golden cake. Take one-third of the batter, add two 
teaspoonfuls of melted butter, a half cupful of seeded raisins, a little 
clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and flour until it is stiff as can 
be easily spread on a jelly tin. Bake the remainder of the batter in 
two layers. With two fruit layers in the center and frosting strongly 
flavored with lemon extract between each layer, this makes a layer 
cake that is fine. This is called "perfection cake" when served in this 
form. A nice, easily made currant cake may be made by following 
this recipe; but take double the amount of flour and baking-powder, 
add a heaping tablespoonful of butter and a cupful of currants and 
you have just what you want. 

Buttercup Cake. — Cream together one-half cup of butter and one 
cup of sugar. Add one-half cup of milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking- 
powder sifted in one and one-half cups of flour. Flavor with vanilla. 
Beat the whites of three eggs to a stiff froth and add last. Stir in 
lightly. Bake in a moderate oven. 

Rich Fruit Cake. — If wrapped in paraffin paper, rich fruit cake may 
be kept on hand for months. When company comes to tea serve it 
with canned fruit, and for dinner steam it, serve it with some appro- 
priate sauce, and have the nicest kind of pudding. Here is the 
recipe: Take three eggs, one and one-half cupfuls of brown sugar, 
three and one-half cupfuls of flour, one cupful butter, one and one- 
half cupfuls molasses, one cupful sour milk, one and one-half cupfuls 
stoned raisins, one and one-half cupfuls currants, one teaspoonful 
each of soda, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Stew the fruit slowly 
for twenty minutes in just enough water to keep it from burning, 
then drain the liquid off and dredge the fruit with flour. Use the 
liquid in the cake, stirring it in with the molasses and sour milk. 
Use the same cup for measuring all the ingredients. The flour must 
be heaped up in the cup, and the soda must be heaped on the tea- 
spoon, but the spices should not be heaped. 

Christmas Fruit Cake. — Take four even cupfuls of good brown sugar, 
three gills molasses, two cupfuls butter, ten eggs (not beaten separately), 



244 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

four pounds raisins, two pounds currants, one pound citron, one table- 
spoonful cinnamon, one nutmeg and one tablespoonful mace. Flavor 
with rosewater and brandy. Take the weight of the sugar in flour, 
put this in the oven and brown to the color of the sugar. After 
stoning the raisins, washing and drying the currants thoroughly and 
shredding the citron, put all the fruit in a wooden bowl and chop very 
fine. Then sprinkle and rub thoroughly with flour, being careful to 
avoid lumps. Stir the cake lightly, sufficient only to mix it, adding 
the fruit last. Brown a little extra flour for mixing the fruit, line the 
pans with thick buttered paper and bake slowly in a moderate 
oven. 

Farmer's Fruit Cake. — Chop fine a half pint of dried apples; cover 
with a half pint of cold water and let them soak over night. The 
next morning add a cupful of golden sirup; simmer gently for one 
hour. Stand aside to cool. Beat half a cupful of butter to a cream; 
add one cupful of granulated sugar. Dissolve a teaspoonful of soda 
in two tablespoonfuls of water and add it to a half cupful of butter- 
milk or sour milk; add this to the batter; add two teaspoonfuls of 
cinnamon, half a teaspoonful of cloves and one egg well beaten. 
Sift two cupfuls of flour; add a little flour, a little of the dried apple 
mixture and a little more flour until you have the whole well mixed. 
The batter must be the thickness of ordinary cake batter. Pour this 
into a well greased pan and bake in a moderate oven for one hour. 

Grandmother's Roll Jelly Cake. — Two eggs, half cup sugar, one heap- 
ing teaspoonful baking-powder, scant cup flour, one tablespoonful hot 
water; beat well and bake in a flat tin. Spread with jelly and roll in 
a napkin. 

Layer Molasses Cake. — One-half cup of brown sugar, one-half cup 
molasses, two-thirds cup cold water, one egg, one teaspoonful soda, 
butter or lard size of an egg. Mix these together and add sufficient 
flour to make as stiff as ordinary cake batter. Try a little before 
baking the whole. Bake in thin layers and put together with frosting. 

Fig Cake. — Any good tender cake recipe baked in three layers with 
white frosting to cover it. Put together with the following filling: 
Boil for fifteen minutes or until thick enough to spread, one cup 
sugar, one-half pound figs, one-half cup water, then add one tea- 
spoonful vanilla. 

Molasses Cake. — One-half cupful each of sugar, butter and molasses 



COOKING RECIPES »45 

(or one-fourth each molasses and maple sirup), one-half cup sour 
milk, two eggs, one teaspoonful each soda and vanilla, one and one- 
fourth cups flour. Bake in two layers and put together with frosting. 

Cream Cake. — Take three eggs, one cupful sugar, one-half cupful 
boiling water, two cupfuls of flour, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder 
and one teaspoonful lemon extract. Beat sugar and eggs well 
together, then add the water and extract and stir in the flour into 
which the baking-powder has been sifted. This is baked in three 
layers and will be found an excellent recipe for any layer cake. 

The filling for the cream cake is made by wetting a tablespoonful 
of corn-starch in a little milk which must be boiling in a basin. Let 
it boil about two minutes, then remove it from the stove, add a little 
lemon extract and sugar to taste. 

Sunshine Cake. — Yolks of five eggs, whites of seven, one cupful of 
granulated sugar, two-thirds of a cupful of flour, half a teaspoonful 
of cream of tartar and half a saltspoonful of salt. Sift four times, 
measure after sifting both sugar and flour. Beat the five yolks 
thoroughly. Then set aside while you whip the seven whites very 
stiff, adding the salt when you begin to whip and the cream of tartar 
when the whites are half beaten. Beat in the sugar, then the yolks, 
add a teaspoonful of orange extract, sift in the flour very lightly, pour 
into an ungreased tube pan and bake in a moderate oven for forty- 
five minutes. 

Orange Cake. — Sift together four times one and one-half cupfuls of 
flour and one and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Beat well 
two eggs, add one cupful of sugar, one-half a cupful of milk, one 
tablespoonful of melted butter and the same quantity of orange juice, 
then the sifted flour and baking-powder. Bake in a square, shallow 
tin. When cooked split open and fill with a cream made as follows: 
Into a cup squeeze the juice of one orange, add a tablespoonful of 
lemon juice and hot water to fill the cup. Put this on to cook in a 
double boiler, thicken with one tablespoonful of corn-starch wet with 
cold water, and add the grated rind of half an orange, one teaspoon- 
fill of butter, two heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar and the yolk of 
an egg. 

Pittsfield Chocolate Cake. — Two eggs, one-half cupful of butter, one- 
half cupful of grated chocolate, one cupful of milk, one cupful of 
sugar, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, two teaspoonfuls of vanilla, 



2 4 <S PRACTICAL RECIPES 

one and one-half cupfuls of flour. Cream together the butter, sugar 
and eggs, add milk, flavoring and chocolate, the latter being melted 
by standing the cup containing it in hot water; then add the flour. 
If not of the right consistency add a little more flour. Bake in a 
single loaf. 

Chocolate Eclairs. — One-half of a cup of hot water and one-fourth 
of a cup of butter boiled together. While this is still boiling add 
one-half of a cup of flour. Remove from the stove and stir to a 
smooth paste. Stir in two unbeaten eggs, one at a time, then drop 
into six buttered muffin-tins and bake twenty-five minutes. Filling: 
Beat together one-half cup of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of flour, 
a dash of salt and one egg; then stir into a double cooker con- 
taining one cup of hot milk. Cook until quite thick. Before 
removing from the fire add one-half of a teaspoonful of vanilla and 
one square of chocolate grated. Allow to cool before filling the 
eclairs. This filling is also very nice for layer cake. 

Hominy Cake. — Stir into one cupful of boiled hominy, while it is 
still hot, a teaspoonful of butter, one saltspoonful of salt and the yolks 
of two well beaten eggs; add slowly a cupful of milk, then a half 
cupful of fine corn-meal; then fold in the whipped whites of two eggs. 
Bake in a flat tin in a hot oven for twenty or thirty minutes. Cold 
boiled hominy left over can be used for this dish by heating it with 
enough water to moisten it. 

Potato Caramel Cake. — Cream together two-thirds cup of butter and 
two cups of sugar, add one-half cup of milk, then one cup of hot 
mashed potatoes, four eggs one by one, two cups of flour, two tea- 
spoonfuls of baking-powder, two squares of melted chocolate, one 
teaspoonful each of cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add one cup of 
chopped nut meats the last thing. Bake slowly^ 

Rice Cakes and Sauce. — Have ready one cup of rice cooked soft. 
Wash and rub "dry one cup of seedless raisins; dust in flour. Cream 
three-fourths cup of butter with one cup of sugar, and add four 
beaten eggs, one scant cup of milk, two and three-quarters cups of 
flour, in which is put one teaspoonful of baking-powder. After this 
is well mixed add rice and raisins. Bake in a moderate oven. When 
ready to serve cut in diamond shapes and run a burning iron around 
the top edge of each diamond. Serve with a sauce made in following 
proportions: One pint of water to a teacupful of sugar and tablespoon- 



COOKING RECIPES *47 

ful of corn-starch. Drop in a cut lemon and piece of cinnamon bark 
until the water and sugar boil. 

Sally Lunn. — Two cupfuls of flour, one cupful of milk, one level 
tablespoonful of butter, three eggs beaten separately, one-half tea- 
spoonful of salt, two even teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. Mix 
thoroughly the baking-powder and salt with the flour. Stir the milk 
and yolks together; add the butter melted; then the flour and lastly 
fold in the whipped whites. Turn into a cake-tin and bake at once 
in a very hot oven for fifteen to twenty minutes. 

Cherry Sponge Cups. — One pint canned cherries. Put into a saucepan 
one-half pint cherry juice. When hot add two tablespoonfuls sugar, 
a saltspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful corn-starch moistened 
with a little of the juice. Stir until smooth, remove from fire, add the 
beaten yolks of four eggs and return to the fire for a moment. Beat 
the whites to a stiff froth and stir in lightly. Place three or four 
cherries in bottom of buttered cups and fill two-thirds of each with 
the mixture. Put cups into pan half full of hot water and poach 
in oven twenty minutes. Serve with any kind of sauce. 

Eggless Drop Cakes are very desirable at those seasons of the year 
when eggs are usually so expensive. Cream together one cup brown 
sugar and a scant half cup of butter. Add two-thirds cup of sour 
milk, one-half teaspoonful soda, one-half cup strained coffee, one-half 
teaspoonful each of cinnamon and ginger, one-half nutmeg grated, 
one-half cup of raisins seeded, and the same of currants, two and 
one-half cups of flour, to which has been added one teaspoonful 
baking-powder. Bake in gem-pans. 

Delicious Jumbles. — -Mix half a cupful of carefully rendered suet or 
any of the lard substitutes with two tablespoonfuls of butter. Dis- 
solve a teaspoonful of soda in two tablespoonfuls of water; stir it into 
one cupful (half a pint) of New Orleans molasses. When foaming 
add a cupful of strong boiling coffee; add this to the shortening, mix 
and add a teaspoonful of ground ginger and about three cupfuls of 
flour or sufficient to make a soft dough. Roll out half an inch in 
thickness; cut with a round cutter and bake in a moderately quick 
oven fifteen minutes. 

Chocolate Fritters. — Make a stiff chocolate corn-starch pudding as 
directed on the corn-starch package. Turn it into a shallow, square 
mold and let it cool. Cut into bars nearly an inch thick; dip each 



248 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

into beaten egg and then into fine bread crumbs and fry a delicate 
brown in deep fat. Drain and serve with or without sauce. 

Marshmallow Cake. — Use any really good tried recipe for the cake. 
Filling: One-half pound marshmallows, saltspoonful cream of tartar, 
two cups granulated sugar, two-thirds cup of water, white of one egg. 
Boil cream of tartar, water and sugar until it hairs, then pour on the 
beaten white of egg, after which stir in the marshmallows and beat 
until smooth. Warm marshmallows enough to soften. 

While Icing. — -Two cups granulated sugar, two-thirds cup milk. 
Stir well until it boils, then boil exactly four minutes without stirring. 
Remove from fire and beat until creamy. Add one-half teaspoonful 
of vanilla. 

Frosting. — Ten tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar, yolks of three 
eggs, one-half tablespoonful of vanilla. Spread on cake while warm 
with a silver knife dipped in hot water. 

COOKIES 

Cream Cookies. — One cupful melted butter, one egg, two cupfuls 
sugar, three tablespoonfuls of thin cream, one teaspoonful saleratus 
and flour enough to roll. Bake in a quick oven, being very careful 
that they do not brown. 

Orange Cookies. — One cupful of sugar, two eggs, one-half cupful of 
butter, one-fourth cupful of milk, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, 
flour enough to roll. Bake quickly and when cool cover with frosting 
to which has been added the juice of one orange. 

Cocoanut Cookies. — One cupful of sugar, one-half cupful each of 
sour milk and butter, one-half teaspoonful of soda, two tablespoon- 
fuls of prepared cocoanut, one egg and flour enough to roll. 

Caraway Cookies. — One and one-fourth cupfuls sugar, one-half 
cupful butter, one-half cupful boiling water, one-half teaspoonful 
saleratus, two tablespoonfuls caraway seed and flour enough to roll. 

Christmas Caraway Cakes. — Into a pound and a quarter of dried and 
sifted flour stir a quarter of a pound of sugar, half an ounce of cara- 
way seeds, a small teaspoonful of baking-powder and a pinch of salt. 
Beat to a cream a quarter of a pound of butter, add to it, one at a 
time, three eggs well beaten, then the flour, etc., very gradually. Roll 
thin, cut with a round cutter, bake for fifteen minutes in a moderate 



COOKING RECIPES 249 

oven, then brush the tops of the cakes with a little milk, sifting sugar 
over. 

German Christmas Cookies. — This recipe is given by Mrs. Bayard 
Taylor in a collection of choice ones: After melting seven and a half 
ounces of butter pour it slowly into a deep dish, taking care that the 
sediment is thrown away. Allow the clear melted butter to stiffen, 
but not to get hard. Then stir it one way to the consistency of thick 
cream, adding gradually while it is being stirred ten ounces of 
powdered sugar, four eggs well beaten beforehand, half a teaspoon- 
ful of ground cinnamon and fourteen ounces of best flour sifted 
before being added. When the batter is smooth and light, which it 
will be after thorough stirring, grease a flat pan with melted butter 
and drop the batter in by teaspoonfuls. Each cake should be 
flattened a little with a spoon, and care should be had that they are 
not put too close together. Bake in a moderately hot oven to a 
light brown. These cookies are iced as soon as done and returned 
to the oven long enough to allow the icing to harden. 

Ginger Snaps Such as We Buy. — One cup of sugar, one cup of 
molasses, one cup of butter, one tablespoonful of ginger, one tea- 
spoonful of soda dissolved in a little water and as much flour as can 
be possibly stirred in (not kneaded); pinch off a piece about the size 
of a large marble and roll in the hands, leaving a space between 
them in the pan to allow for spreading, which they will do when 
warm; bake in a moderate oven until a nice brown and leave in the 
pan until they cool sufficiently to be snappy, which will be a short 
time. To warm the ingredients will facilitate the stirring; if dough 
stands a day it will not matter. 

DOUGHNUTS 

Sugar Doughnuts. — One cup sugar, one egg, quarter cup thick 
cream, one and a half cups milk, half a teaspoonful each nutmeg and 
salt, one teaspoonful soda and two ounces cream of tartar. Mix as 
soft as can easily be handled, fry in good hot fat. These are light 
and delicious. 

Doughnuts That Will Not Be Greasy. — One-half pint of milk, eight 
heaping tablespoonfuls of sugar, two eggs, two and one-half table- 
spoonfuls butter, one-half teaspoonful baking-powder, one-half tea- 
spoonful soda (scant measure), little nutmeg and cinnamon, flour for 



2 5 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

a soft dough. Roll out and fry in smoking hot lard. (To measure 
one-half a spoonful fill the spoon, smooth off the top, then divide 
lengthwise of spoon — from tip toward handle; take off one-half.) 

GINGERBREAD 

Fairy Gingerbread. — One-half teacup of granulated sugar, one- 
quarter teacup of melted butter; stir well. One-half teacup of 
molasses in which dissolve one teaspoonful of soda, one-half cup of 
sour milk, one teaspoonful of ginger, one-quarter teaspoonful of cin- 
namon, one and one-half cups of flour. This will not be very stiff but 
do not add more flour, or it will not be light and fluffy. 

Warm Molasses Gingerbread. — One cupful brown sugar, one-half 
cupful of butter, one cupful of milk, three cupfuls of flour, three eggs, 
one tablespoonful of ground ginger, one tablespoonful of ground 
cinnamon, one teaspoonful of cloves, one teaspoonful of soda. Mix 
butter and sugar to a cream. Then add the molasses, eggs beaten 
separately, spices, and then the flour. Dissolve the soda in the milk 
and put into the batter just before baking. 

Almond Gingerbread. — Make an ordinary good gingerbread, having 
it tender and well spiced, and stir in almonds which have been 
blanched and split. The combination of flavors isjvery delicious. 

PANCAKES 

Pancakes Are No! Indigestible if the batter is properly prepared and 
the cake eaten when very hot. The batter for pancakes should be 
smooth and thin enough to run freely when turned onto the griddle. 
The griddle must be perfectly clean and easily heated. A soap- 
stone griddle is the best, as it holds the heat better and as it 
requires no greasing. When an iron griddle is used it should also be 
given time to be evenly heated, and while the cakes are being baked 
it should be moved so the edges may in turn come over the hottest 
part of the range. It must be wiped off and greased after each set of 
cakes is baked. A piece of salt pork on a fork is the best thing for 
greasing, as it makes an even coating and too much grease is not 
likely to be used. The griddle should be hot enough to hiss when 
the batter is turned onto it. 

If Plain Pancakes Are Desired they should be made by stirring two 
cupfuls of milk into two beaten eggs; add enough flour to make a thin 



COOKING RECIPES 251 

batter; add half a teaspoonful of salt and a heaping teaspoonful of 
baking-powder. Sour milk can be used, in which case omit the 
baking-powder and add half a teaspoonful of soda. The baking- 
powder or soda should not be put in till just before beginning to bake 
the cakes. The cakes will be better and lighter if the eggs are beaten 
separately and the whipped whites added the last thing. 

Flannel Cakes with Yeasl. — Heat a half-pint of sweet milk and into it 
put one heaping tablespoonful butter, let it melt, add a half-pint cold 
milk and the well beaten yolks of two eggs, a half teaspoonful of salt, 
two tablespoonfuls home-made yeast, and flour to make a stiff batter. 
Let rise in a warm place over night. Before baking add the beaten 
whites, which have been kept in a cool place during the night. Be 
sure and make batter stiff enough, as flour must not be added after 
it has risen. These cakes, half corn-meal and half wheat, are very 
nice. 

Flannel Cakes. — One tablespoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of 
sugar, two eggs, two cupfuls of flour, milk, one teaspoonful of baking- 
powder. Rub the butter and sugar to a cream, add the beaten eggs, 
then the flour, in which the baking-powder has been sifted. Add 
enough milk to make a smooth, thin batter. 

Yankee Buckwheats. — To four cupfuls of sifted buckwheat add a 
scant cupful of corn-meal and a rounded teaspoonful of salt. Sift 
these ingredients together and make into a batter by stirring gradu- 
ally into it five cupfuls of lukewarm water and a compressed yeast 
cake dissolved in half a cupful of lukewarm water. Beat the batter 
hard. Cover closely and set to rise in a warm place. Let stand for 
twelve or fourteen hours. In the morning just before baking the 
cakes stir an even teaspoonful of soda in a quarter of a cupful of 
milk and pour this into the batter. Stir this lightly in, just enough to 
mix the soda, and bake on a hot griddle. Keep the cakes closely 
covered and send to the table smoking hot. 

Bread Griddle Cakes. — Rub one cupful of stale bread crumbs fine 
and soak them in one cupful of milk for fifteen minutes; then beat 
until smooth. Add one-half of a level teaspoonful of salt, one table- 
spoonful of butter melted, and one egg beaten until light. Sift in 
three-fourths of a cupful of flour, beating the batter well; then 
quickly stir in one rounding teaspoonful of baking-powder. Bake on 
a hot griddle and serve with maple sirup. 



2S» PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Adirondack Pancakes. — Bake several pancakes as large as a plate. 
Butter and cover them with maple sirup; pile them one on another 
and cut like a pie. In place of the sirup grated maple sugar can be 
placed between the pancakes on the butter. 

Sweet Pancakes. — Three eggs, one cupful of milk, one-half tea- 
spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of sugar, one-half cupful of flour, 
half a tablespoonful of olive oil. Beat the whites and yolks of eggs 
separately, mix them together and add the salt, sugar and half the 
milk, stir in the flour, making a smooth paste. Then add the rest of 
the milk and lastly the oil. Beat well and let it stand an hour or 
more before using. Bake on a hot griddle in small cakes, spread 
each cake with butter and a little jam or jelly, then roll them, sprinkle 
with sugar and serve at once. 

French Pancakes. — Yolks of two eggs, one tablespoonful olive oil, 
two cups flour, one-third teaspoonful salt, one teaspoonful baking- 
powder, milk to make a rather thin batter. Beat the yolks of the 
eggs until light, add the flour and milk, stir in the oil, salt and lastly the 
baking-powder, to which has been added a little flour. Beat well for 
two or three minutes. Grease a small frying-pan and pour in enough 
batter to cover the bottom, brown on both sides, sprinkle generously 
with powdered sugar and serve at once. 

Corn-meal Pancakes.- — Pour a little boiling water on a cupful of corn- 
meal and let it stand half an hour; add a teaspoonful of salt, a table- 
spoonful of sugar, one egg and two cupfuls of flour. Add enough 
milk to make a smooth batter and a teaspoonful of baking-powder 
just before baking. Instead of white flour, rye-meal may be used, 
allowing one cupful of rye to one of corn-meal, a tablespoonful of 
molasses instead of the sugar, and soda instead of the baking-powder. 

Rice Pancakes. — Make the same batter as for plain cakes, using 
half boiled rice and half flour. Any of the cereals — hominy, oatmeal, 
cracked wheat — can be used in the same way. A little butter is some- 
times added to the batter. 

Pumpkin Griddle Cakes. — To one cup of pumpkin stewed until dry 
add one ounce of butter, one rounded tablespoonful of sugar, one-half 
teaspoonful of salt and one cup of scalding hot milk. Mix well. 
Beat separately the yolks and whites of two eggs, add the yolks to 
the pumpkin mixture, then add one cup of flour that has had two tea- 
spoonfuls of baking-powder sifted in it. Add another cup of sweet 



COOKING RECIPES 253 

milk, and then beaten whites of the two eggs. If necessary add a 
little more flour, but leave the butter thin enough to run from the 
spoon. Bake on a well-greased, hot griddle. 

WAFFLES 

Waffles. — One quart of flour, a small quart of milk and water 
mixed, two eggs, one teaspoonful of lard or butter, two tablespoon- 
fuls of yeast, one teaspoonful of salt. Beat it very hard until very 
light. Put the batter in a deep earthen dish to rise over night. 
Bake without stirring in heated waffle-irons well greased. Serve 
with cinnamon, sugar or maple sirup. 

Corn-meal Waffles. — To one pint of salted corn-meal mush add a 
tablespoonful of butter, and when it is cold add the well beaten yolks 
of four eggs. Then beat in one cup of sifted flour to which has been 
added one heaping teaspoonful of baking-powder. Last of all beat 
in the stiffly beaten whites of the eggs. Have the waffle-iron very 
hot. 

Whole Wheal Waffles. — Yolks of three eggs slightly beaten, one-half 
teaspoonful salt, one pint milk, two cups whole wheat flour, two tea- 
spoonfuls baking-powder, one tablespoonful butter. Add last the 
whites beaten to a stiff froth and bake in waffle-irons. This is the 
most healthful of all the hot breads. 

German Toast. — Take two eggs, beat slightly, add five or six table- 
spoonfuls sweet milk and a saltspoonful of salt. Dip half slices of 
bread in mixture and fry in butter. Serve hot with or without sirup 
as desired. 

PIES 

Lemon Pie. — Two eggs, one cup of sugar, four tablespoonfuls of 
butter, one cup of grated apples, the juice and grated rind of one 
lemon, one tablespoonful of corn-starch, one cup of water. Beat 
sugar, butter and corn-starch to a cream. Add the other ingredients 
and bake in a deep pie-plate. When cold frost with the whites of 
the two eggs beaten very light with two tablespoonfuls of powdered 
sugar. Flavor with vanilla and set in the oven to brown. 

Custard Pie. — Put on the stove to heat one pint of milk. Into a 
quart bowl break one large or two small eggs, add a half saltspoonful 
of salt and beat thoroughly. Add one generous half cup sugar and 



254 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

four grates of nutmeg, stir thoroughly; pour on this the hot milk; let 
it stand. Meanwhile make the crust. Stir the mixture a few times. 
By the time the crust is ready the mixture will be cool enough to put 
in the tin to bake. Put into a hot oven; bake quickly. This custard 
will be like jelly. A pie made like this does not need to bake as long 
as when cold milk is used. It is long baking and too many eggs that 
make custard pie tough and watery. 

Cream Pie. — Mix thoroughly two cups of flour and five tablespoon- 
fuls of butter, then add three tablespoonfuls of sugar and one large 
egg, which have been thoroughly beaten together previously. Roll an 
eighth of an inch thick, line two pie-tins, prick with a fork and bake 
a pale brown, then add: 

The Cream: Two cups milk, two tablespoonfuls of corn-starch, 
five tablespoonfuls of sugar, yolks of five eggs. Cook together like 
custard, and when cold cover with meringue made of whites of five 
eggs and five tablespoonfuls powdered sugar. 

Date Pie. — For one pie take one heaping cupful of pastry flour, 
add a pinch of salt and mix to the right consistency with sweet cream. 
The crust will be much nicer if allowed to get very cold before 
using. 

Filling: To a cupful of seeded dates add a cupful of water, cook 
over hot water about twenty minutes, then rub through a sieve. Beat 
an egg and a tablespoonful of sugar until light; add a tablespoonful 
of lemon juice, the date paste and gradually a cupful of scalded milk. 
Pour into a half-baked shell and finish baking in a moderate oven 
until a knife blade can penetrate it and come out clean. 

Pineapple Pie. — One-half can of pineapple, grated, two tablespoon- 
fuls butter, one cup sweet cream, one-half cup sugar, yolks of three 
eggs. Bake with under crust. Beat the whites of three eggs stiff with 
one-fourth cup sugar and brown in hot oven. 

Butternut Pie. — Beat the yolks of three eggs with the white of one, 
and three tablespoonfuls of sugar; add scant half-teaspoonful of salt, 
a pint of milk and half a teacupful of chopped butternut meats. 
When baked frost the top with the whites of the eggs beaten stiff 
with two tablespoonfuls of sugar; flavor with lemon, set in the oven 
and brown with moderate heat. 

Priscilla's Pumpkin Pie. — The Alden family has one anient recipe 
for which extreme antiquity is claimed by such members of the 



COOKING RECIPES 255 

family as belong to the Mayflower Society. Some go as far as to 
declare it was the formula which enabled the fair Priscilla to charm 
Miles Standish and John Alden. It runs as follows: One pint 
pumpkin, one egg, one gill molasses, quarter pound muscovado, one 
piece of butter big as an egg, one gill of milk, salt, a little cinnamon, 
nutmeg and ginger (one teaspoonful of ginger, one-half teaspoonful 
of cinnamon, one-fourth teaspoonful of nutmeg, one-half teaspoonful 
of salt will be sufficient for one pie). Bake forty minutes. Double 
the quantity for two pies. This pumpkin custard baked in individual 
molds and served with whipped cream and bread and butter crusts 
would be much daintier than the pie. 

Cream Peach Pie. — Peel, stone and halve ripe peaches. Line a 
deep pie-plate with puff-paste and lay the peaches in this. Sprinkle 
thickly with sugar and fit on an upper crust. Have ready and cold a 
cream sauce. To make this, scald a half pint of milk and thicken it 
with a tablespoonful of corn-starch rubbed smooth in a little cold 
milk. Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar and the frothed white of an 
egg. Boil together for five minutes and set aside to cool. When the 
pie is done carefully lift the top crust and fill the pie to overflowing 
with the cream sauce. Replace the crust and set in a cool place. 
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and eat very cold. 

Mince Pie. — The following recipe for mincemeat makes nearly 
three quarts and is particularly fine: One cup chopped meat, one and 
one-half cups raisins, one and one-half cups currants, one and one- 
half cups brown sugar, one-third cup molasses, three cups chopped 
apples, one cup stock, two teaspoonfuls salt, two teaspoonfuls cinna- 
mon, one-half teaspoonful nutmeg, one-fourth teaspoonful cloves, 
grated rind and juice of one lemon, one-fourth cup chopped citron, 
one-fourth cup brandy, one-fourth cup wine, the juice of two oranges 
and the grated rind of one orange. If one does not wish to use the 
brandy and wine one cup of cider and one cup of sirup from sweet 
pickles may be substituted. 

PUDDINGS AND DESSERTS 

English Plum Pudding. — Seed first one pound of raisins; mix with 

them a pound of currants and half a pound of minced orange peel; 

dust over a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, half a nutmeg grated, 

three-quarters of a pound of stale, dry bread crumbs. Mix all the 



256 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ingredients together. Beat five eggs, without separating, until light; 
idd to them half a pint of grape or orange juice; pour over the dry 
ingredients and mix thoroughly. -The mixture should not be wet, 
but each particle should be moistened. Pack this into small greased 
kettles or molds. It will fill two three-pound kettles. Put on the 
covers, stand the molds in the steamer and steam steadily for ten 
hours. The easier way is to get the ingredients ready the night 
before; mix and put them on early in the morning allowing them to 
cook all day. Take them from the steamer, remove the lids of the 
kettles or molds and allow the puddings to cool; then replace the lids 
and put the puddings away. They will keep in a cool place for 
several months or a year. 

Plum Pudding. — Six buttered crackers rolled fine and soaked in 
three pints of milk. Cream one-quarter of a cup of butter with one 
cup of sugar; add half a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of mixed 
spices and six well-beaten eggs. Stir it all into the milk and add one 
pound of the best raisins. Bake in a deep pudding-dish well greased 
with cold butter. Bake very slowly in a moderate oven three hours. 
Stir several times during the first hour to keep the raisins from 
settling. 

Christmas Pudding. — Take three-fourths of a pound of suet chopped 
very fine. Mix with it while chopping a tablespoonful of flour, three- 
fourths of a pound of raisins seeded, three-fourths of a pound of 
sugar, three-fourths of a pound of currants, three-fourths of a pound 
of fresh bread crumbs, the grated surface of one lemon, one-fourth 
of a pound of candied orange peel and citron cut into thin shavings, 
one-half teaspoonful each of ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and 
allspice. Mix the dry materials together thoroughly and then add 
six eggs, one at a time, and one-half cupful of brandy. Add another 
egg if too stiff and more bread crumbs if too soft. Wet a strong 
cloth in cold water, wring it dry, butter it and dredge it with flour. 
Turn the mixture into the center and draw the cloth together over 
the top, leaving room for the pudding to swell a little, and tie it firmly. 
Give it a good round shape. Put it into a pot of boiling water, having 
it completely covered with water. Cover the pot and boil for five 
hours. Do not let the water fall below the pudding, and in adding 
more let it be hot. After it is removed from the water let it rest in 
the bag ten minutes to harden a little. Then cut the string and turn 







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COOKING RECIPES 25? 

it carefully into a dish. Pour a little brandy over the pudding and 
touch a match to it just before serving. Serve with a brandy or 
foamy sauce. 

Plum Pudding Croquettes. — Heat a pint of milk, crumb into it a large 
cup of soft bread — no crust — cover it and let it keep hot for an hour. 
Add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one egg well beaten, one-fourth 
teaspoonful of salt, the same of cinnamon, a little cloves and nutmeg, 
and a cup of chopped fruit, citron, raisins and currants. Mix well; 
when cold make tiny croquettes, dip them into beaten egg, roll in fine 
crumbs of cake or bread, fry till golden brown in smoking hot fat and 
serve with wine or vanilla sauce. 

Tapioca Caramel.— Soak one cup of tapioca over night in one quart 
of water, in the morning add to it two cups brown sugar, bake until 
the tapioca is clear and jellylike. Remove from the oven and add to 
it one teaspoonful vanilla and the juice of half a lemon. Serve in 
ice cups with whipped cream heaped on the top. 

Variety Fruit Pudding. — Sift one tablespoonful of baking-powder 
with one pint of flour, add one quart of milk, two-thirds cupful of 
sugar, one tablespoonful of melted butter, four eggs and fruit. This 
is usually baked in a buttered dish and served with sauce, according 
to the fruit used. As to the fruit you may use whatever you happen 
to have. Currants and raisins are nice, so are dried raspberries and 
strawberries, and both prunes and pieplant may be used. The pud- 
ding may be steamed instead of baked if desired. The fruit may be 
stirred into the batter or it may be spread between the layers of the 
batter; it all depends upon the kind of fruit used. Pare and quarter 
apples, place them in a basin, add sugar and nutmeg, pour in water 
enough to cover them, then spread the batter over the top. Cover the 
basin closely and set it on the back of the stove where it will cook 
slowly but steadily for an hour or more, and you will have a delicious 
pudding. 

Cabinet Pudding. — Ornament the bottom of a well-buttered mould 
with citron and raisins. Cover them with slices of cake. Then fill 
the mold nearly full of alternate layers of fruit and cake, arranging 
the fruit on the edges of the fruit layers so it will be even. Make a 
custard mixture of a pint of milk, three egg yolks and three table- 
spoonfuls of sugar. Pour it slowly into the mold so the cake will be 
thoroughly soaked and set it in a pan of water. Bake it in a slow 



2 5 8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

oven for an hour or until the custard is set. Unmold the pudding 
and serve it with a wine sauce. 

Frozen Cabinet Pudding. — Two dozen lady fingers, one cupful of 
English currants, one pint of cream, one pint of milk, one small tea- 
cupful of sugar, three eggs, three tablespoonfuls of wine. Put the 
milk in the double boiler, beat the eggs and sugar together and grad- 
ually pour the hot milk on them. Remove the boiler and cook two 
minutes, stirring all the time. Pour the hot custard on the lady fingers, 
add the currants and set away to cool. When cold add the wine and 
the cream whipped to a froth. Freeze the same as ice-cream. 
When frozen wet a melon mold with cold water and sprinkle a few 
currants on the sides and bottom, and pack with the frozen mixture. 
Pack the mold in salt and ice for an hour. When ready to serve turn 
out the pudding and pour over it some kind of a rich fruit sauce. 

Cottage Pudding. — One cupful of flour, one heaping teaspoonful of 
baking-powder, one tablespoonful of butter, one-half cupful of sugar, 
one-half cupful of milk, a saltspoonful of salt and one egg. Mix the 
baking-powder with the flour and sift them. Rub the butter and 
sugar together to a cream and beat them into the egg. Then add 
the milk, in which the salt has been dissolved, add the flour, beat well 
together and turn into a cake tin which has a tube in the center. 
Bake about twenty minutes in a moderate oven. Turn it onto a flat 
dish, leaving it bottom side up. It can be served with a chocolate or 
cream sauce. 

Swiss Pudding. — One teaspoonful of flour, one tablespoonful of 
butter, three of sugar, one pint of milk, five eggs, the rind of a lemon. 
Grate the rind of the lemon (the yellow part only) into the milk, which 
put into a double boiler; rub the flour and butter together, pour the 
boiling milk onto this and return to the boiler. Cook five minutes, 
stirring the first two; beat the yolks of the eggs and sugar together 
and stir into the boiling mixture; remove from the fire immediately; 
when cold add the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Have a 
three-quarter mold well buttered; turn the mixture into this and 
steam forty minutes. Turn onto a hot dish and serve with a tumbler 
of currant jelly melted with the juice of two lemons. 

Suet Pudding. — One cupful of molasses, one teaspoonful of soda, 
one cupful of milk, three and a half cupfuls of flour, one cupful of 
stoned raisins, one cupful of suet chopped fine, one teaspoonful of 



COOKING RECIPES 259 

salt. Mix the salt, flour and suet together; mix the molasses and the 
milk; add the soda and then as much of the flour mixture as will 
make a stiff batter, not a dough. Then add the raisins and flour and 
fill a covered pudding-mold half full; steam for three hours. Serve 
with wine or a foamy sauce. 

Bread Pudding.— Two cupfuls of milk, one cupful of bread crumbs or 
broken bread, one tablespoonful of sugar, the yolks of two eggs, the 
white of one, one-half teaspoonful of vanilla, one saltspoonful of salt. 
Soak the bread in the milk until softened, then beat it until smooth 
and add the rest of the ingredients except the white of egg. Turn it 
into a pudding-dish, place this in a pan of hot water and bake in a 
slow oven fifteen or twenty minutes or only long enough to set the 
custard without its separating. Cover the top with a layer of jam or 
tart jelly and place in the center a ball of meringue made with the 
white of one egg. Dust with sugar, place in the oven a moment to 
brown the meringue, and then put a piece of jelly on the top of the 
meringue. Serve hot or cold, preferably hot. The jelly and meringue 
answer as a sauce. 

Bread and Butter Pudding. — Cut stale bread into slices, remove the 
crust, dip them in melted butter and arrange them in a small round 
or square cake tin in even layers, alternating with layers of stoned 
raisins. When the mold is full pour over it a mixture made of one 
pint of milk, the yolks of two eggs and two tablespoonfuls of sugar; 
use only as much as the bread will absorb. Bake in a moderate oven 
twenty to thirty minutes. Turn it on a flat dish and serve with it a 
plain pudding sauce. The bread should be dry and crisp and hold 
the form of the mold. 

Batter Pudding. — One cupful of milk, one heaping tablespoonful of 
butter, one-half cupful of flour, three eggs. Put the milk in a double 
boiler and when hot add the butter. Let the milk boil, then add the 
flour and beat it hard until it leaves the sides of the pan. Then 
remove from the fire and stir in gradually the eggs, which have been 
well-beaten (the yolks and whites together), and a dash of salt. Con- 
tinue to beat the batter until it is no longer stringy. Turn into a 
warm greased pudding-dish and bake in a moderate oven about 
thirty-five minutes. It should puff up like a cream cake and have a 
thick crust. Serve as soon as it is taken from the oven or it will fall. 

Batter and Fruit Pudding. — One pint of milk, one pint of flour, four 



2 6o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

eggs, one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, one pint of 
fruit pared and quartered (either apples or canned peaches are good). 
Beat the eggs well with a spoon, and add the milk to them. Turn 
part of this mixture on the flour and beat to a light, smooth batter. 
Add the remainder of the milk and egg and salt. Butter a pudding- 
dish and pour in the batter. Sprinkle in the fruit; bake half an hour. 
Serve with foaming sauce the moment it comes from the oven. 

Fruit and Bread Pudding. — Soak one cup of stale bread crumbs in 
one pint of hot milk, add one tablespoonful of butter, one cup of 
sugar, one saltspoonful of salt and the same amount of spice. When 
cool add three eggs well beaten, two cupfuls of fruit, either chopped 
apples, raisins or currants, turn into a buttered mold and steam two 
hours. Serve with a hard sauce. 

Brown Bread Pudding. — Mix together two pounds of brown bread 
crumbs, six ounces of sifted sugar, a little grated lemon peel, a pinch 
of cinnamon powder, four ounces of finely chopped glace cherries and 
half a glass of curacao. When thoroughly mixed add half a pint of 
milk or cream (if possible the latter), and the well beaten yolks of 
four eggs. Finally add the whites whisked to a firm froth; fill a 
well-greased mold and steam for an hour and a quarter. Turn out 
carefully, pour a little heated ginger sirup over and around, and serve 
at once. Strawberry or raspberry or pineapple sirup may be sub- 
stituted for the ginger sirup if the latter is not liked. 

Queen's Pudding. — Soak one pint of bread crumbs in one quart of 
milk, add two whole eggs and the yolk of one, reserving the white, 
one cup of sugar, two teaspoonfuls of lemon extract; bake. When 
cool spread with jelly of any kind (cranberry left from previous meal 
will do), cover with the reserved white of egg and the two left from 
the rechauffe beaten stiff, and sweetened with three tablespoonfuls of 
sugar. Brown lightly in the oven. 

Sweet Potato Pudding. — Peel and slice the potatoes rather thin. Put 
a layer in a deep baking-dish, sprinkle lightly with sugar, salt, pepper 
and dot with butter. Continue to do this until the dish is filled. 
Cover with water and bake about thirty or forty minutes until tender. 

Corn-meal Pudding from Johnny Cake. — A good way to make a corn- 
meal pudding is to bake a quantity of johnny cake the day before; 
spread so thinly in the baking-pans that when done it is not more 
than half an inch thick. Layers of this johnny cake are covered with 



COOKING RECIPES 261 

good meat gravy, allowed to stand over night and baked the next 
morning. 

Pumpkin Indian Pudding. — Mix a pint of Indian meal and half a 
tablespoonful of ground ginger with a pint of cooked and mashed 
pumpkin. Stir a cupful of molasses and a third of a cupful of butter 
into a quart of boiling milk; add the pumpkin mixture, a level tea- 
spoonful of salt and the grated yellow rind of a lemon. Before 
adding the molasses stir into it a half teaspoonful of soda dissolved 
in a little water. Turn into a buttered three-quart mold, cover tightly 
and boil three to four hours. Serve hot with lemon sauce. 

Baked Indian Pudding. — One quart of scalded milk, with a teaspoon- 
ful of salt added, one and one-half cupfuls of Indian meal (yellow), 
one tablespoonful ginger, letting this stand twenty minutes, one 
cupful of molasses, two beaten eggs, a piece of butter the size of a 
common walnut. Bake two hours in a slow oven. Serve with cara- 
mel sauce. 

RICE AS A DESSERT 

Baked Rice for Quick Service. — Steam the rice the day before it is 
wanted until it is nearly done, then season it with sugar and cinna- 
mon. Add seeded raisins and pour a thin cooked custard over it. 
Cover it closely and when baked quickly the next morning it tastes 
as if freshly prepared. 

Imperial Rice. — Put into a double boiler a cup and a half of milk, 
one-half saltspoonful salt and one-fourth cup rice; cook, covered, till 
the milk is absorbed and rice tender, then add one-sixth box gelatin 
which has been soaked in sufficient cold water to cover, and dissolve 
over heat. Let the mixture cool and just before it begins to thicken 
add one-fourth cup powdered sugar, one-half teaspoonful vanilla and 
half a cup of cream whipped to a stiff froth. Turn into a wet mold 
and set away to cool. 

Rice Cups. — Wash one cup of rice in several waters, place it in two 
quarts of boiling water and boil rapidly half an hour. Drain thor- 
oughly and put into a double boiler with a pint of milk, and cook half 
an hour longer. It should be rather dry by this time. Garnish the 
bottom of custard cups with a slice of banana, some sort of preserves, 
and then pack the cup with the rice, allowing it to remain there for a 
few moments. Then turn out and serve with a soft boiled custard. 



262 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Lemon Rice Pudding. — Boil half a pint of rice in a quart of milk 
until very soft. Add to it while hot the yolks of two eggs, two table- 
spoonfuls of sugar, the grated rind of two lemons and a little salt; if 
too thick add a little cold milk; this should be a little thicker than a 
boiled custard. Turn into a pudding-dish, beat the whites of the 
eggs very stiff with eight tablespoonfuls of sugar and the juice of the 
two lemons, and brown the top delicately in the oven. Set on the ice 
until very cold. 

APPLES 

Apple and Tapioca Pudding. — One large cupful of tapioca, three 
pints of water, one cupful of sugar, one teaspoonful of salt, one tea- 
spoonful of essence of lemon, three pints of pared and quartered 
apples. Wash the tapioca and soak it over night in three pints of 
cold water. Put the tapioca in a double boiler and cook until it looks 
clear. It will take from twenty to thirty minutes. When cooked 
enough add the sugar, salt and lemon and then the apples. Turn 
into a buttered dish and bake an hour and a quarter. Let it stand in 
a cool room half an hour before serving. Serve with sugar and 
cream. 

Brown Betty. — Pare, core and slice sufficient apples to make a pint. 
Wash a half cup raisins, shell and blanch a half cup of almonds and 
cut in strips. Sift three-fourths of a pint of crumbs and mix with them 
a half teaspoonful grated nutmeg. Sprinkle over the apples one-fourth 
cup sugar. Butter a quart pudding-dish. Put apples, nuts, raisins 
and crumbs in alternate layers, having the last layer crumbs. If 
apples are dry, add one-half cup water. Dot the top with bits of 
butter and bake in a moderate oven one-half hour. Serve hot or 
cold with cream or sauce. 

Apple Indian Pudding. — Stir half a cup of corn-meal into one pint of 
scalded milk. When thickened slightly stir in one pint of pared and 
sliced sweet apples, half a cup of molasses or sugar, half a teaspoon- 
ful of salt, a tablespoonful of butter and one quart of milk. Bake 
four hours very slowly in a buttered pudding-dish. To be eaten hot 
or cold with cream, whipped or plain. 

Toronto Pudding. — Peel, core and chop fine four large tart apples. 
Beat three eggs, add four tablespoonfuls of sugar, the same of 
cleaned currants, one cupful of bread crumbs, half a cupful of flour, 



COOKING RECIPES *6 3 

the minced apples and the grated rind of half a lemon. Turn into a 
buttered mold and steam one and one-half hours. 

Eve's Pudding. — Six eggs, six apples, six ounces of bread, six ounces 
of currants, half a teaspoonful of salt and a little nutmeg. Boil three 
hours and steam four. Serve with wine sauce. 

Pan " Doudy." — To make pan "doudy" one must have apple sauce, or 
stewed rhubarb, and plenty of stale bread. The bread is cut into 
thick slices and toasted in a slow oven until crisp clear through. 
These slices are then buttered on both sides and placed in a pudding- 
dish, and the sauce, which must be very juicy, is poured over every 
layer. The sauce softens the bread, but does not make it like dough, 
and when it is baked and served hot it is delicious and very hearty. 

Baked Apples. — When apples are to be baked they should be 
selected of equal size. They should be washed and polished, with 
the cores removed, and then be placed in a baking-pan a little 
distance apart, with a little water in the bottom of the pan. Bake in 
a moderate oven for about thirty minutes, basting frequently, so that 
they will not burn or blacken. Serve with sugar and cream. When 
apples are to be served for luncheon or dessert they should be pared 
and cored and the centers filled with butter and sugar. Let them 
bake in a pan with a little water until tender, but not so long that 
they will lose their shape. Baste frequently, letting them become 
only slightly colored. After removing them from the pan sprinkle 
them with granulated sugar. The space in'the center may also be 
filled with jelly or jam with good results. 

Apple Sauce. — -Pare, core and quarter a half dozen apples. Make 
a sirup of one cup of sugar, two-thirds of a cup of water. When 
boiling add the apples and cook carefully two or three minutes, until 
they are tender, but not broken. Remove them carefully, boil the 
sirup down a little and strain it over the apples. They should be 
cooked in a granite or porcelain saucepan. 

Apple Sauce. — Slice the apples after paring them, turn them into a 
granite basin, sprinkle sugar over them, add the juice of a lemon and 
a very little water, and let them bake in a slow oven until done, 
stirring them frequently so they may not become brown. 

Date Apple Sauce. — When making plain apple sauce add dates 
stoned and cut in two. They give a delicious flavor and change an 
otherwise plain dish to a welcome dessert. 



264 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Scalloped Apples.— Pare and core four good-sized hard apples, cut 
them in slices, place a layer of bread crumbs in the bottom of a 
baking-dish, then a layer of apples, a sprinkling of chopped walnuts, 
a little sugar, then crumbs again and continue with alternate layers, 
having the top crumbs. Pour over the mixture a cup of water or 
sweet cider and bake forty minutes. Serve hot with cream and sugar. 

Apple Shortcake. — Make a rich biscuit crust and bake it in a shallow 
pan. When it is done split it open, butter each piece and on one 
arrange a layer of apples cooked slowly in sirup until they are tender. 
Put on the other half bottom upward, and cover it with fruit. Serve 
with rich cream and shaved maple sugar. 

Apple Pudding. — Peel and core eighteen sour apples and cut them 
in pieces; stew them slowly with a little water, a piece of cinnamon, 
two whole cloves and a bit of lemon peel until they are soft; sweeten 
to taste and mash them through a sieve. Incorporate the yolks of 
four eggs, the white of one, four tablespoonfuls of butter, some 
nutmeg and the juice and grated peel of a lemon; beat the mixture 
thoroughly and place it in a pudding-dish which has been lined with 
puff paste. Bake half an hour, then add a meringue and place it in 
the oven a moment to brown. 

Bachelor's Pudding. — Pare, core and slice sufficient apples to weigh 
a quarter of a pound, add a quarter of a pound each of currants and 
grated bread, three ounces of butter cut in small pieces, or beef suet, 
a heaping tablespoonful of flour, two ounces of sugar, half a teaspoon- 
ful of salt, three beaten eggs, the grated rind and juice of half a 
lemon and quarter of a teaspoonful of nutmeg grated. Flour the 
fruit, mix the eggs and sugar together, and the suet and apples, then 
mix all and pour in a buttered mold. Steam three hours. Serve with 
any preferred sauce. 

Apple Dumplings. — Make a short pie crust, roll it thin and cut into 
squares large enough to cover the apples. Select apples of the same 
size, pare them, remove the core and fill the space with sugar, butter, 
a little ground cinnamon and nutmeg. Place an apple in the center 
of each square of pie crust. Wet the edges with white of egg and 
fold together, the points meeting on the top. Give the edges a turn 
and flute; bake in a moderate oven about forty minutes, or until the 
apples are tender, but not until they have lost their form. Brush the 
top with egg, and ten minutes before removing from the oven dust 



COOKING RECIPES 265 

them with a little sugar to give them a glaze. Serve with a hard 
sauce. 

Apples with Corn-starch.— Pare and core as many apples as will be 
used, having them a uniform size. To a quart of water add one-half 
cupful of sugar and the juice of half a lemon; boil the apples in this 
until tender, but remove them before they lose shape. Drain and 
place them in regular order upon the dish from which they are to be 
served. Boil the water down one-half, then stir into it one table- 
spoonful of corn-starch moistened in a little water, and let it cook 
until the starch is clear; remove from the fire, flavor with lemon or 
anything preferred, let it stiffen a little, then pour it over the apples. 
Sprinkle with sugar and place in the oven a moment to brown. 

Apple Trifle. — Put together in a large stewpan one quart of 
chopped apples, one pound of sugar, a pinch of .'cinnamon, the juice 
of three lemons and the grated rind of one. Simmer slowly for an 
hour and turn into a serving-dish. When cold pour over a plain egg 
custard and use ice cold. 

Apple Souffle. — Boil some peeled and cored apples until tender. 
Press them through a colander. Season to taste with butter, sugar 
and vanilla; place the puree in a granite-ware saucepan and let it 
cook until quite dry and firm. To one and one-quarter cupfuls of the 
hot, reduced apple puree add the whites of four eggs whipped very 
stiff and sweetened with two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Mix 
the puree and meringue lightly and cook it together and turn it into a 
pudding-dish. Smooth the top into a mound shape, sprinkle with 
sugar and bake in a slow oven twenty or twenty-five minutes. Serve 
with a hard sauce. This souffle does not fall. 

Apples and Honey. — Remove the cores and skins from apples and 
place them in a baking-pan. Put into each apple a teaspoonful of 
honey and a lump of butter, with a slight sprinkling of cinnamon. 
Pour a cupful of water on the baking-pan and bake until brown and 
tender. 

Apples and Lemon. — Take six large, spicy apples, quarter them, and 
cover with one pint of cold water and half a pound of granulated 
sugar. Skim well while boiling and add an even saltspoonful of 
ground cinnamon and the juice of half an orange or lemon. Stir, but 
do not break the apples. Serve when ice cold. 

Apple Omelet. — To six stewed apples add two tablespoonfuls of 



266 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

butter, two of sugar and three well beaten eggs. Fry as an omelet 
and sprinkle with sugar. Serve very hot. 

Apple Conserve. — Boil together one cupful of water and a pound of 
granulated sugar. Boil until it spins a thread. Remove the skin and 
core from well-flavored apples, and when the sirup is sufficiently 
boiled drop the apples in gently and boil slowly until they are done. 
Remove the apples to a glass dish and boil the sirup until it will jelly. 
When partly cool pour the sirup over the apples and stand away in a 
cold place. These are very nice for luncheon or for a Sunday night 
supper. 

Novel Suggestions for Cooking Apples. — In caring for apples they 
should first of all be sorted. Pare the best parts of the imperfect 
ones. If a perfect quarter is obtained place it in a dish for future 
sweet pickles. The smaller pieces can be either stewed or canned, or 
they can be made into apple butter, or combined with the juices of 
other fruits and made into marmalade. 

The same recipe may be used for making these apples into sweet 
pickles as is used when making crab-apple sweet pickles, and if the 
pieces are carefully dropped into the liquid while it is boiling hot, and 
but few put in at a time, they will not break up badly. They may be 
used just as any other fruit for pickles, sauce or pies as the occasion 
demands. 

Juice left from the canned fruit eaten may be mixed with the portion 
of sliced apples left for marmalade. This makes a very nice change 
and comes in good in the spring when the other fruit is nearly gone. 

A little lemon juice or oranges stewed with a part of the canned 
apple-sauce gives it a fine flavor and a change. Some may be 
seasoned for pies by stewing down until quite thick, and this should 
be kept for pies or rolled steamed puddings. By being careful so 
many of the apples will not go to waste. 

Canned Fried Apples. — Fry the apples, and fill the cans as they 
stand in the boiler of hot water, then partially screw on the cover and 
allow them to remain where they are until the water is boiling 
vigorously. Then treat them like any other canned fruit. 

CIDER SUGGESTIONS 

Cider Will Keep if It Is Boiled, reduced at least one-third and then 
bottled. A raisin or a few mustard seeds may be put in the bottle 



COOKING RECIPES 267 

previous to pouring in the cider. The corks must be fastened with 
wires, and the bottles be placed in a dark, cool closet. 

Spiced Apples with Cider. — Boil together one cupful of cider, one- 
quarter cup of vinegar, one cupful brown sugar, one bay leaf, two 
teaspoonfuls whole allspice, two dozen whole cloves, two inches stick 
cinnamon, two blades mace. Pare and core eight large, tart apples, 
cut in quarters and add to the boiling sirup; simmer gently until 
tender, but not broken. Take out the fruit carefully, boil sirup until 
thick as honey, pour over apples and serve cold. These are delicious 
with roast goose, duck or pork or any cold meat. 

Cider Pudding. — Cream one and a half tablespoonfuls butter, add 
three tablespoonfuls granulated sugar and one egg. Beat all together 
until very light. Add half a cup of cider. Into one cup flour put 
one-half teaspoonful cinnamon, one-quarter teaspoonful grated 
nutmeg and one-eighth teaspoonful of ground cloves. Sift this into 
the batter and add a quarter cupful each of currants and sultana 
raisins mixed with a quarter cup of flour. Add one-quarter teaspoon- 
ful of baking-soda with the last bit of flour and beat briskly for a 
minute or two. Pour into a well-greased mold and steam one hour 
and a half; turn out carefully, as the texture is delicate, and serve hot 
with orange sauce. 

PEACHES 

Preserved Peaches. — Remove the skins by placing them in an iron 
basket and plunging them for a moment into boiling lye. This is a 
better method than paring, as the fruit is less apt to be injured. 
The lye is made of two cupfuls of wood ashes to four quarts of water. 
After removing the fruit from the lye rinse thoroughly in cold water 
and then rub off the skins. Cut each peach in two and place again 
in cold water to preserve the color. Place in a porcelain-lined kettle 
three-quarters the weight of sugar you have of fruit. Add a very 
little water to dissolve the sugar. Let it boil a minute and take off 
any scum that rises. Then add as much fruit as will float without 
crowding, and cook until it is transparent, but not until it loses shape. 
Remove each piece separately as soon as it is cooked. When ready 
to fill the jars, place them carefully in a pan of boiling water; have the 
tops and rubbers also in hot water. Place the fruit in the jars and 
pour the hot sirup over it. 



268 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Glazed Peach Pudding. — Boil and drain one cup of rice. Boil 
together until they spin a thread, a half pound of sugar and a gill of 
water; have ready pared and stoned six nice fresh or canned peaches. 
Put the rice in the center of a round dish; make it perfectly smooth, 
round and flat to the depth of about two inches; have a large dish of 
cocoanut. Lift the sirup from the fire; dip in carefully each piece of 
peach; arrange it at once on the rice, filling the center full of cocoa- 
nut, and so continue until you have the peaches in a mound. Agitate 
the sirup left in the pan for a moment and then stir it full of cocoa- 
nut. Make into tiny balls; drop the mixture here and there and send 
it at once to the table. To be eaten plain or with cream. 

Peach Pudding. — Drain the liquor from canned peaches and thicken 
slightly with cerealine or corn-starch; add the beaten yolks of two 
eggs, two-thirds teacupful of sugar, a little salt and a tablespoonful of 
butter. Put the mixture into a well-buttered pudding-dish, drop the 
peaches over the top and bake half an hour. Cover with a meringue. 

Peach Pudding. — Line the bottom of a deep pudding-dish with 
thick slices of stale sponge cake soaked in sherry. Fill the dish with 
fresh peaches sliced and sprinkled with sugar. Spread over the top 
a meringue of whites of eggs beaten lightly with sugar in the propor- 
tion of a tablespoonful of sugar to one egg and return it to the oven 
just long enough to lightly brown the meringue. Set the dish on ice 
and serve very cold with plain whipped cream. 

Peach Pudding. — One cupful of sugar, one of milk, three of flour, 
two eggs, one-half cupful of butter, two teaspoonfuls baking-pow- 
der. This should be spread over a broad, shallow pan. On top 
of this batter place peaches halved, peeled and seeded. In the 
hollows put sugar, a bit of butter and a drop of vanilla; bake and eat 
warm with milk. 

Peach Tapioca. — Soak half a pint of granulated tapioca in a quart 
of cold water for half an hour, then add a pint of boiling water, cook 
slowly until perfectly transparent. Peel and quarter six large peaches 
or eight small ones, sprinkle with half a cup of sugar, put in an 
earthen baking-dish, pour the tapioca over, sprinkle with two table- 
spoonfuls sugar, and bake slowly half an hour. Eat either hot or cold 
with whipped cream. 

Compote of Peaches. — Pare the fruit and remove the pits. Put it in 
a shallow earthen dish with enough water to fill the dish a quarter 



COOKING RECIPES 269 

inch deep. Place in a moderate oven and bake until tender. Serve 
hot with hard sauce. 

Peach Scallop. — Peel and chop enough peaches to make two 
cupfuls. Put a layer of them in the bottom of a greased pudding' 
dish, sprinkle thickly with sugar, add a layer of stale sponge cake 
crumbs, then more sugared peaches and so on until the dish is full. 
Sprinkle with sugar and crumbs and bake for three-quarters of an 
hour. Eat hot with a hard sauce. 

Peach Snow. — One cup of sweet cream, one cup of sugar, one quart 
of sliced peaches, whites of two eggs. Add half the sugar to the 
cream and stir until it is dissolved, then add the stiffly beaten whites. 
Place the sliced peaches in a dish, sprinkle with the remainder of the 
sugar, pour the cream over and serve at once. The cream, eggs and 
fruit should be kept on ice for at least two hours before the dessert is 
prepared. 

Peach Bavarian Cream. — One quart of cut-up peaches, one large 
cupful of sugar, one pint of cream, half a box of gelatin, half a cupful 
of cold water. Mash the peaches and rub them and the juice through 
a sieve. Add the sugar. Soak the gelatin two hours in the cold 
water. Whip the cream to a froth. Put the peaches in a saucepan 
and let them simmer twenty minutes. Stir often. Add the gelatin 
to the hot peaches and remove at once from the fire. Place the 
saucepan in a pan of ice water and beat until the mixture begins to 
thicken; then stir in the cream. Mix thoroughly and pour into the 
mold. Set away to harden. Serve with whipped cream. 

Peach Ice-cream. — Sweeten a quart of rich cream, flavor it with a 
dash of vanilla, put the cream in a freezer and when it is so chilled 
that' it begins to stiffen stir in a quart of peaches that have been 
peeled and chopped fine and sweetened. Then freeze as you would 
any ice-cream. 

Peach Souffle. — Remove the stones from ripe, juicy peaches and 
press the pulp through a sieve. To the pulp add a half pound of 
pulverized sugar and the beaten whites of three eggs. Whip the 
mixture until very light; then fold in the whites of four more eggs 
beaten stiff, and let it stand in a quick oven for five minutes. Serve 
at once. Preserved or canned peaches may be used in the same 
manner. 

Pickled Peaches. — Select ripe, sound fruit, and rub each peach 



2 7 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

thoroughly with a flannel to remove all the fuzz, or the fruit can 
be dropped in the lye as for preserved peaches. The skin, however, 
adds flavor to the peach, and it also keeps the fruit from becoming 
tough. In each peach stick two cloves and several small pieces of 
cinnamon. For six pounds of fruit use three of sugar and a pint of 
vinegar. If the vinegar is too strong add water to it that has been 
boiled and allowed to become cold. Have the sirup very hot and 
drop the fruit in it and allow it to cook until tender. 

Peach Shortcake. — Four cupfuls of sifted flour, three teaspoonfuls 
of salt, one teaspoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of lard, milk. Sift 
the baking-powder and salt and flour, rub in the shortening; then 
with a fork stir in lightly and quickly sufficient milk to make a soft 
dough — too soft to roll. Turn the mixture into two greased pie-tins 
and bake in a hot oven about thirty minutes. Cut up the peaches 
and let them stand while the cake is being prepared and baked, 
adding enough sugar to sweeten. Butter the baked crusts and place 
the peaches between them, reserving enough to cover the top. This 
can be served plain or with whipped cream. 

Peach Fritters. — One quart of flour, two heaping teaspoonfuls of 
baking-powder, one-half teaspoonful of salt, three eggs. Pare, slice 
and halve the peaches, dip in the batter and fry in hot fat, serving 
immediately with hard sauce or sugar and cinnamon. 

Peach Kisses. — Pare and halve six large, ripe peaches. Boil one 
pint of granulated sugar with a quarter pint of water until it snaps 
when dropped in cold water. Dip the peaches in this and set away 
to harden. Whip the whites of four eggs until the bowl may be 
inverted without dropping them. Beat in five tablespoonfuls powdered 
sugar and two tablespoonfuls blanched and finely chopped almonds. 
Drop this in large spoonfuls into a pan of boiling water and cook for 
a minute or two, then lift out carefully to a large plate. Fill each 
peach half with this mixture, rounding the tops slightly, and keep in 
cool place until ready to serve. 

PEARS 
Pear Pudding. — Pare, core and cook until transparent six pears, 
either Bartlett or a good cooking pear, adding to the sirup one table- 
spoonful of lemon juice, one teaspoonful of preserved ginger root. 
Have ready the following: Pour one cup of boiling water onto two 



COOKING RECIPES 271 

tablespoonfuls of corn-starch moistened with a little cold water, cook 
until transparent, then add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and fold in 
stiffly beaten whites of three eggs. Line a mold with this. Cut the 
stewed pears into thin slices and lay in the center of the mold; cover 
with more of the pudding and set on ice until firm. Serve with a 
sauce made by adding one cup of cream to the sirup, which should 
measure one cup; when hot add two egg yolks beaten until foamy. 
Serve ice cold. 

Baked Pear Pudding. — Boil one-half cup of rice in salted water until 
tender, then drain and put into a double boiler with one cup of milk. 
Cook until the latter is absorbed, then add one cup of sugar, one 
tablespoonful of butter and turn lightly through with a fork until the 
sugar is dissolved. Butter a fancy mold and have ready three cups 
of the prepared pears, which have been pared, cored and cut into tiny 
bits. Fill the mold with alternate layers of rice and pears, finish with 
a layer of rice. Bake for twenty-five minutes in a quick oven. Turn 
out on a dish and serve with whipped cream. 

Baked Pears. — Core, do not pare, five large soft pears. Insert a 
date that has been freed from its stone in the vacant space and bake 
the pears until tender, basting them with melted butter, sugar and 
hot water. Make a meringue of the beaten white of one egg and one 
tablespoonful of powdered sugar. Drop a teaspoonful of this on top 
of each pear and brown in a slow oven. Serve the pears either hot 
or cold. 

Compote of Pears. — To a half pint of water and half a pound of 
sugar add the juice of half a lemon and one-fourth cup of raspberry 
juice from canned fruit. Let it boil ten minutes and then add as 
many of the best table pears peeled and cut in halves as the sirup 
will cover. Let them simmer until perfectly tender yet unbroken, 
then lift carefully to a glass dish, spread over them a thin layer of 
apple jelly, and, after the sirup has been reduced by boiling until rich 
and thick, let it cool a little and then pour over the fruit. Cream may 
be served with it if liked. 

Ginger Pears. — Five pounds of pears chopped fine, four pounds 
granulated sugar, four lemons (grated rind of two, juice of four), two 
ounces of ginger preserves or ginger glace chopped very fine. Boil 
until thick as jelly and put up in cups. 

Ginger Pears. — Peel and core the pears and cook until tender in just 



272 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

enough water to cover them; then take them out and put in the 
water your sugar and ginger, using three-quarters of a pound of 
sugar to every pound of fruit, and two ounces of ginger to every five 
pounds; boil the sirup about half an hour and then put in the pears 
and boil them about ten minutes. Put in glass cans and seal. 

VARIOUS FRUITS 

Baked Quinces. — Pare and core one dozen nice quinces, fill the cav- 
ities with granulated sugar, place in shallow pan with little water, 
bake slowly until tender, basting often; in the meantime make a jelly 
with the cores and parings, allowing, when strained, a pint of sugar 
to one of juice; pour jelly while hot over the quinces, which have 
been put in glass dish. When cooled set on ice. Serve with whipped 
cream or not, as you fancy. 

Pineapple Pudding. — Grate a pineapple very fine and mix well 
together a cupful of sugar and four eggs. Then mix them with the 
pineapple pulp. Turn the mixture into a mold, set the mold into a 
pan of water and bake it slowly until stiffened like a baked custard. 
When cold unmold and decorate with whipped cream. 

Iced Pineapple. — Chop one pineapple (or one can of sliced pine- 
apple if the fresh fruit cannot be obtained) quite fine and cover with 
sugar. Set in the refrigerator until thoroughly chilled. Just before 
serving add the juice of one lemon and one-fourth of a cup of straw- 
berry or other fruit juice. Cover with finely cracked ice. 

Apricots with Cherries. — One quart of stewed evaporated apricots 
rubbed through a colander and sweetened with one pint of sugar; 
add one pint of preserved cherries, the juice of one lemon, and pack 
in freezer. When it begins to harden stir in one pint of cream, 
whipped stiff, measured before whipping. 

FRUIT TRIFLES 

Plum Trifle. — Cut damson plums in halves and cook until tender in 
a little sirup, drain and rub the pulp through a coarse sieve. To a 
cupful of the pulp when cold add the stiffly whipped whites of four 
eggs. Fill glass custard cups half full of vanilla custard and when 
very cold put a large spoonful of the trifle on top, heaping it up 
roughly. Serve very cold. 

Lemon Trifle. — Take one large sponge cake, slice it and arrange it 



COOKING RECIPES 273 

in a deep glass dish, then pour a teacupful of hot milk over it to soak 
it. Beat the yolks of three eggs and stir with them four tablespoon- 
fuls of powdered sugar. Heat three teacupfuls of milk and pour over 
the eggs by degrees, stirring constantly, then return to the saucepan 
and continue stirring until it thickens. Let it cool a little, then add 
three teaspoonfuls of lemon extract and pour over the cake. When 
perfectly cool cover with the whites of the eggs beaten to a stiff 
froth, sweetened with one tablespoonful of sugar and flavored with 
the extract of lemon and a quarter of a lemon rind finely grated. The 
trifle should be made only long enough before serving to allow it to 
cool and the frosting to be added. 

Trifles. — Beat one egg, add to it one tablespoonful of sugar and 
work in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll it as thin as a 
dollar and cut into small round or square cakes. Drop into boiling 
lard and cook a light brown. Take them out with a skimmer and 
drain on brown paper. When ready to serve put a spoonful of jelly 
on each. 

Lemon Sherbet. — For a lemon sherbet boil together for twenty 
minutes one pint of sugar and one scant quart of water and when 
cool add a cupful of lemon juice and the grated rind of two lemons; 
mix together and freeze until firm. Strawberry and orange sherbets 
are made in the same way, adding a little lemon juice. A mixture of 
fruit juices makes delicious sherbets or sorbets; the latter are 
sherbets only half frozen. 

CREAMS AND CUSTARDS 

The success of whipped cream depends upon the fact that the 
dish, the beater and the cream are thoroughly chilled in advance. 
Lovers of whipped cream will rejoice in the fact that this delicious 
froth is more easily digested than is plain cream. So let there be 
whipped cream for the strawberries and the chocolate and the 
puddings. Whipped cream will cover, sometimes, a multitude of 
sins. Strawberries which are small and in appearance somewhat 
inferior can be served advantageously in a large bowl with an abund- 
ance of sweetened whipped cream upon them. 

Custard Pudding — How to Cook It. — In cooking custard pudding the 
liability of the eggs and milk to separate is greatly lessened if not 
entirely removed by baking in cups set in water. Ordinary stone- 



274 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ware cups will answer every purpose, though the cups with straight 
sides, like a tumbler, make rather prettier forms. Grease the cup 
with butter and sprinkle on all the granulated sugar which will 
adhere to the butter before filling with the pudding or custard. 

Magic Custrad. — Cut and butter on both sides half a dozen thin 
slices of bread; cut into quarters and cover with one quart of custard 
flavored with vanilla. Bake, and when cooked have the whites made 
into a meringue and put on top; return to oven to brown. Serve 
cold. 

Custard Cups. — Beat the yolks of five eggs till light; add a gener- 
ous half cup of very light brown sugar, or granulated may be used, 
three and one-half cupfuls of milk, one teaspoonful of vanilla and 
one-fourth teaspoonful of salt. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. 
Pour the custard into cups; grate a little nutmeg over each; stand in 
a pan of warm water and bake in a moderate oven till just set, that 
is, till a knife plunged into the center will come out clear— a moment 
longer will turn them watery. Set aside to cool. 

Macaroni Custard.— Put three cups of milk into a saucepan with the 
rind of half a lemon and three tablespoonfuls of sugar, bring to the 
boiling point, and drop into it one-fourth of a pound of macaroni; let 
it gradually' swell over a gentle fire, adding a saltspoonful of salt 
when half cooked. When tender but unbroken turn into a deep dish 
and pour over the hot macaroni three cups of hot boiled custard; 
grate over it a little nutmeg; when cold garnish with slices of candied 
citron. 

Coffee Bavarian Cream. — One-half ounce of gelatin, one-quarter 
cupful of cold water, one-half cupful of hot water, one cupful of 
coffee, one-half cupful of sugar, one cupful of whipped cream. Soak 
the gelatin in the cold water for an hour. Then dissolve it in the hot 
water and add the sugar. When the sugar is dissolved add a cupful 
of cold, strong, clear coffee. Put the mixture on ice and whip until it 
becomes light and frothy and has begun to stiffen. Then add the 
whipped cream and turn it into a mold. The gelatin must be thor- 
oughly whipped and the liquid drained from the whipped cream must 
not go in. This will make a little over a quart of mousse. 

Leche Dulce, or Sweet Milk, is a Cuban dessert which is suited to the 
farm supper; it is sure to be a favorite with the children. It is pre- 
pared by putting on a quart of milk to boil, sweetened with a cupful 



COOKING RECIPES 2?5 

of molasses or sugar; add two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice to make 
it curdle. It does so in large pieces; then sprinkle with a teaspoon- 
ful of ground cinnamon. When eating it, and cutting through these 
pieces with the spoon, it resembles a piece of cake in sauce. 

EMERGENCY DESSERTS 

Fruil Sandwiches. — Cut in nice even slices one-third inch thick one- 
half a loaf of stale, spongy bread, cut off the crusts and butter the 
slices. Pile them one upon the other with peaches or any preserve 
spread between. Pour over the whole sirup from the fruit and let 
it stand half an hour before serving. Serve with cream. Very good. 

Bread Tarts. — Cut bread into slices a quarter of an inch thick, then 
with a biscuit cutter about three inches in diameter stamp it into 
circles. Moisten the circles of bread with milk, but do not use 
enough to cause them to fall apart; then spread them with any jam 
or preserve and place together like a sandwich; place them in a 
frying-pan with a little butter and saute them on both sides to a deli- 
cate brown; sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve very hot. A 
foaming sauce can be served with them if desired, but it is not 
essential. 

SOUFFLES 

Vanilla Souffle. — One cupful of milk, two teaspoonfuls of flour, three 
tablespoonfuls of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one-fourth tea- 
spoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of vanilla, four eggs. Put the milk 
into a double boiler with the salt; when it is scalded add the butter 
and flour, which have been rubbed together. Stir for ten minutes to 
cook the flour and form a smooth paste; then turn it onto the yolks 
of the eggs, which with the sugar added have been beaten to a 
cream. Mix thoroughly, flavor and set away to cool; rub a little 
butter over the top so that no crust will form. Just before time to 
serve fold into it lightly the whites of the eggs, which have been 
beaten to a stiff froth. Turn it into a buttered pudding-dish and 
bake in a moderate oven for thirty or forty minutes; or put the 
mixture into buttered paper cases, filling them one-half full, and bake 
ten to fifteen minutes. Serve with the following sauce: One-half 
cup of butter, one cupful of powdered sugar, one teaspoonful of 
vanilla, one-fourth cupful boiling water, two tablespoonfuls of sherry, 



27 6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

white of one egg. Cream the butter and sugar; add the vanilla and 
wine and beat them well. Just before serving stir in the boiling 
water; add the whipped white of egg and beat until foamy. Serve 
at once after taking from the oven. 

Chocolate Souffle. — Two cupfuls of milk, one and one-half squares of 
chocolate, three-fourths of a cupful of powdered sugar, two table- 
spoonfuls of corn-starch, three eggs, one-fourth teaspoonful of salt, 
half a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. Boil the milk in a double 
boiler, leaving one-third of a cupful to mix with the corn-starch. 
After mixing stir into the boiling milk and cook eight minutes. Dis- 
solve the chocolate with one-half cupful of the sugar and two table- 
spoonfuls of boiling water. Add to the other mixture. Beat the 
yolks and add them and the salt. Cook two minutes. Set in cold 
water and beat until cool, then add the flavor and pour into a dish. 
Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff froth, add the remaining sugar 
and pour on the custard. Dredge with sugar, brown in the oven, but 
let it remain there but a few seconds. 

CHOCOLATE DESSERTS 

Iced Chocolate. — To one pound of grated chocolate add a cup of hot 
milk and stir until smooth. Now add one quart of boiling milk (less 
one cup) and boil six minutes, stirring constantly. Pour in a pitcher 
and set on ice till very cold. Have tall thin glasses and half fill with 
crushed ice; add two or three lumps of sugar and fill with the iced 
chocolate. Put on top a generous spoonful whipped cream. A good 
drink for hot weather. 

Chocolate Cream. — Scald two cupfuls of milk and melt on a dry pan 
two squares of unsweetened chocolate; add the hot milk slowly to the 
chocolate, stirring all the time. Let it come to the boiling point. 
Beat two whole eggs and two yolks with four tablespoonfuls of sugar; 
stir the milk and chocolate into the eggs and half a teaspoonful of 
vanilla and a dash of salt; turn the mixture into a mold; set it into a 
pan of hot water and cook in a slow oven until it is firm. In order to 
have it smooth and solid it must bake slowly. Test it by running in 
the point of a knife; if it is not cooked it will coat the knife with 
milk. Unmold and serve cold with whipped cream. 

Creole Chocolate Pudding. — To one-half pint of dried and rolled 
bread crumbs add one quart of milk, one-half cup of sugar, yolks of 



COOKING RECIPES 277 

three eggs beaten, pinch of salt, one-half teaspoonful vanilla, one-third 
cake Baker's chocolate grated. Bake until set well and serve with 
whipped cream on top or whites of eggs in meringue. 

Steamed Chocolate Pudding. — One-half cup granulated sugar, one 
egg, one tablespoonful of melted butter, a pinch of salt, one-half 
cup milk, two cups flour, one teaspoonful baking-powder, one-half 
teaspoonful vanilla, two squares of grated chocolate. Steam one 
hour. Serve with whipped cream. 

PUFFS 

German Puffs. — The yolks of six eggs, five tablespoonfuls of flour, 
one of melted butter, one pint of milk, one-half teaspoonful of salt. 
Beat the yolks of the eggs light, add the milk to them and pour part 
of this mixture on the flour. Beat light and smooth. Then add the 
remainder of the eggs and milk and the salt and butter. Butter 
muffin-pans and half fill them with the batter. The quantity given 
will fill twelve puffs. Bake twenty minutes in a quick oven. Serve 
on a hot platter with sauce poured over them, making the sauce of 
the whites of six eggs, one cupful of powdered sugar, the juice of two 
oranges or one lemon. After beating the whites to a stiff froth grad- 
ually beat in the sugar and then the juice of the fruit. 

Delicate White Puffs.— Beat a pint of rich milk and the whites of 
four eggs until very light, and add slowly, beating all the while, a 
cupful of finely sifted flour and a scant cupful of powdered sugar and 
the grated peel of half a lemon. Bake in buttered tins in a very hot 
oven, turn out, sift powdered sugar over them and serve hot with 
lemon sauce. 

NUT DESSERTS 

Peanut Wafers.— Chop fine one pint of shelled and skinned peanuts, 
add three eggs, two tablespoonfuls of milk, some salt and one cup of 
sugar creamed with two tablespoonfuls of butter. Then add flour to 
make a soft dough, roll thin, cut into strips and bake in a moderate 
oven. 

Foamy Peanut Sauce. — Soak one-quarter ounce of gelatin in quarter 
cup of cold water for fifteen minutes, dissolve over hot water, and 
add to one-quarter cup of cream, stirred with four teaspoonfuls of 



278 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

peanut butter until smooth. Add this mixture to one cupful of 
double cream whipped, adding also half a cupful of chopped peanuts, 
one-half teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of white pepper. Beat 
all together over ice until stiff enough to stand alone. 

Almond Dainties. — Make a boiled frosting with one cup of sugar 
and the white of an egg. Stir into this a cupful of slightly chopped 
blanched almonds and a half cup of currants. Spread quickly on 
small unsweetened crackers and run into the oven to brown slightly. 
Delicious with afternoon tea. 

Almond Pudding. — One pint of shelled almonds, two dozen maca- 
roons, the grated rind of a lemon, half a cupful of sugar, half a cupful 
of butter, the yolks of six eggs, one quart of milk, one pint of cream, 
one tablespoonful of rice flour. Blanch the almonds and pound them 
in a mortar; put the milk in a double boiler, reserving half a cupful; 
add the pounded almonds to it. Mix the rice flour with the half 
cupful of cold milk and stir into the boiling milk; cook six minutes 
and put away to cool; when about half cooled add the sugar and 
butter, which should have been beaten together until light. When 
cold add the yolks of the eggs well beaten, the macaroons, which 
have been dried and rolled fine, and the cream. Butter a pudding- 
dish that will hold a little more than two quarts. Turn the mixture 
into this and bake slowly for forty-five minutes. Serve cold. 

Chestnut Ice-cream. — Make a boiled custard of one pint of hot 
cream, six beaten eggs and one-half a cupful of sugar and a pinch of 
salt. Then add one pound of French chestnuts that have been boiled 
tender, shelled and pressed through a sieve. Flavor delicately with 
vanilla and freeze. Serve in fancy cups with a boiled chestnut 
garnish. 

Chestnut Puree. — Boil for five minutes a pound of French chestnuts; 
drain off the water and remove the shells and skins; return the 
chestnuts to the fire and boil them until tender; put the boiled chest- 
nuts in a mortar and pound them to a paste, then add a teaspoonful 
of vanilla and a teaspoonful of lemon juice; make a thick sugar sirup 
and beat it into a paste, using enough water to sweeten to taste. 
Grease a ring-mold with oil and put into it a lining half an inch thick 
of the chestnut paste pressed through a pastry bag with a tube of 
small opening so it will come out in form like vermicelli; fill the rest 
of the mold with plain paste; turn it onto a layer of sponge cake 



COOKING RECIPES 279 

Just before serving fill the center of the ring with whipped cream 
flavored with either wine or essence. 

Chestnut Bavarian Cream. — The chestnuts are prepared as for chest- 
nut puree. To two cupfuls of puree add one ounce of gelatin, which 
has been soaked for an hour and a half in half a cupful of cold water 
and then dissolved in a half cupful of hot water. Mix well and when it 
begins to stiffen add a pint of cream whipped to a stiff froth and 
turn the mixture into a ring-mold to harden. Fill the center with 
whipped cream. 

ORANGE DESSERTS 

Orange Macaroon Pudding. — Soak one-quarter pound of almond 
macaroons in a pint of milk until soft. Beat four eggs without separat- 
ing with one-half cupful of sugar and the grated rind of an orange. 
Do not grate a bit of the white, as it spoils the flavor. Stir carefully 
into the macaroons and sugar. Add juice of two oranges. Pour into 
a buttered mold and set on a stand or ring in a kettle of boiling water. 
Keep boiling steadily for an hour; add only boiling water to keep 
covered. Serve hot with orange sauce. Be sure the lid fits tight to 
keep water from soaking in. 

Orange Tapioca. — Soak over night one-half cup tapioca with about 
three pints of water. In the morning add one cup of sugar and one 
saltspoonful of salt. Boil until clear. Beat the whites of two eggs 
very stiff. Remove tapioca from stove and beat in the eggs; lastly, 
beat in one cup of shredded oranges. This will make enough for 
two desserts. Any preferred fruit may be used. 

PRUNES 

Rice and Prunes can be happily combined in a dessert. Spread 
stewed prunes over the bottom of the mold, then fill the mold with 
boiled rice. Press the rice in just hard enough to make it hold in 
shape. Turn it out of the mold and serve cold with the sweetened 
juice of the prunes as sauce, or it maybe served with whipped cream. 

Prune Souffle. — Wash half a pound of prunes in warm water; put 
them to soak for six hours in cold water to cover. Then stew in the 
same water until tender. Drain, remove the stones, sweeten to taste 
and beat to a smooth paste. Whip the whites of four eggs until stiff 
and add the prune paste. Turn into a buttered mold or baking-dish, 



2 8o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and bake for twenty minutes. The souffle can be served hot or cold 
with whipped cream. 

BANANAS 

Banana Cream. — One cupful of milk, one cupful of water, one heap- 
ing teaspoonful of corn-starch, one even teaspoonful of sugar, one-half 
saltspoonful of salt, two bananas, six lady-fingers, one-half pint of 
cream. Slice the bananas and place them in a glass dish in alternate 
layers, with four lady-fingers split in two. Put the milk and water in 
a saucepan; add the sugar, salt and corn-starch diluted in a little 
cold water. When it has thickened pour it over the bananas and let it 
stand until cold and ready to serve; then cover the top with whipped 
cream. Split and break in two the remaining lady-fingers and place 
them upright around the edge. 

Banana Souffle. — Slice a sufficient number of bananas in a buttered 
ramequin; sweeten to taste and flavor with lemon juice. Prepare a 
custard of one quart of rich milk, the yolks of four eggs and half a 
cupful of sugar. Pour while hot over the bananas. Cover with 
meringue and brown in a slow oven. Serve cold. 

Bananas and Cream. — Cut bananas into slices one-quarter of an 
inch thick. Arrange them in a pile in the center of the dish and 
place around them spoonfuls of whipped cream. The cream may be 
flavored with sherry or vanilla, but no sugar should be used. 

Steamed Banana Pudding. — One cup of molasses, one-half cup of 
butter, one teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful each of cinnamon and 
grated nutmeg, two eggs, three cups of whole wheat flour, one cup of 
milk, one level teaspoonful of soda, one cup of seeded raisins, three 
yellow bananas. Soften the butter and add the molasses, then stir in 
the well beaten eggs, the flour, milk, salt and spices. Dissolve soda 
in a tablespoonful of lukewarm water and add; now stir in the raisins 
and the bananas cut very thin. Butter a pudding-mold, fill two-thirds 
full, put on cover and set in kettle of boiling water, weighting down, 
to boil continuously for three hours. 

Baked Bananas with Cream. — Bake the bananas fifteen minutes, or 
until they are soft, but take them up before the skins break. Split 
them, remove them from the skins and curl them doughnut shape on 
plates. Put a teaspoonful of raspberry jam in the center of each and 
serve with cream. Delicious. 



COOKING RECIPES 281 

Boiled Bananas. — Wash a dozen medium-sized bananas and boil 
with their skins on in soup stock to cover for half an hour. Remove, 
then take off a strip of skin, leaving the pulp in a boat; place around 
the edge of the meat platter and serve hot with the roast. This is a 
Cuban style of serving this fruit. 

Banana Boats. — Select small, firm bananas, or cut large ones in half 
crosswise. They may be either fried or baked. If baked, remove the 
skins, place in a buttered tin, sugar lightly, using a level teaspoonful 
only to six pieces, and sprinkle on each a few drops of lemon juice. 
Bake twenty minutes in a quick oven. Cut five or more slices of 
bread, not quite one-half inch thick, from a fairly fresh loaf. The 
slices may be cut thicker if necessary to handle well, and they should 
be as nearly square as possible, but the crust should not be trimmed 
off to make them so. Butter evenly and on each place diagonally a 
whole or halt a banana, as the case may be; bring the opposite 
corners of the slice carefully together over it, joining with slender 
skewers or toothpicks, and fastening the projecting ends together 
with a piece of twine. Place on buttered tin and brown delicately in 
a quick oven. Remove the fastening and serve with or without a 
dressing. A well seasoned cheese or tomato sauce may be used, or a 
sweet sauce, as chocolate, or a nicely made one of fruit. 

Banana Sponge. — Whites of four eggs, six bananas, one and a 
quarter cupfuls of sugar, three-quarters of an ounce of gelatin, the 
juice of one orange and the juice of half a lemon. Soak the gelatin 
in half a cupful of water for half an hour, then stir over hot water 
until melted. Add sugar, orange and lemon juice and stir until the 
sugar dissolves. Stand in a cool place while preparing the bananas. 
Skin them and press through a sieve. There should be two cupfuls 
of pulp, which should be added to the gelatin. Place on ice until 
partly congealed. Beat the whites of the eggs very stiff, and stir 
them into the banana mixture. Stir until stiff enough to retain its 
shape and turn into a mold. Stand in a cool place and serve with 
whipped cream. 

GRAPES 

Grapes for long keeping should have a tough, strong skin, be of a 
good quality, well grown and thoroughly ripened, and must have all 
defective berries removed. In putting away care must be taken not 



282 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

to allow the bunches to touch each other, wrapping each bunch in a 
soft, white paper and keeping in a cool, dry room. Another good 
plan is to lay clusters rather closely in a stone jar holding two or 
three gallons, putting in first a layer of dry sawdust and then a layer 
of grapes and so on until the vessel is filled. In all cases it is best 
to dip the stem of the cluster or bunch in melted sealing-wax. 

Grape Marmalade. — Stem and wash the grapes in a porcelain kettle 
with one-fourth cup of water to prevent burning. Cook until tender, 
then press through a colander. Measure the pulp and place again on 
the stove; allow to cook ten minutes. Then add two-thirds as much 
sugar as there is pulp, and boil again for ten or fifteen minutes. Put 
up in jelly glasses, or better still, pint or quart stone jars. 

Grape Marmalade. — Heat jam grapes, strain and remove skins and 
seeds. To four pints of juice add three pounds of sugar, two pounds 
of raisins. Boil until it becomes like marmalade. Just before remov- 
ing from the fire stir in one pound of English walnuts. 

Grape Mush. — Stem and wash the grapes, measure and add to them 
half as much water. Cook over a slow fire until the seeds can be 
easily separated from the pulp, then turn into a cheese-cloth bag and 
let drip. Use the fruit juice in place of water with farina, or any 
other cereal; cook in a double boiler for the usual time. It is best 
served cold. Niagara or purple grapes may be used. 

Grape Apple Butter. — Cook a half peck of grapes and run through a 
sieve, add a half peck of apples that have been peeled, cored and cut 
in small pieces, and four pounds of sugar; cook until thick. 

CRANBERRIES 

Cranberry Pudding. — Prepare a rich biscuit batter, using baking- 
powder and sweet cream, and stirring in flour until it is just as thick 
as it can be spread with a spoon. Spread a thin layer of this batter in 
one of the cake-pans having a funnel in the center, add a layer of 
cranberries, pressing them into the batter, then put in more batter 
and more cranberries until the dish is full. The last layer is of the 
batter. Then steam the pudding two hours and serve it hot with 
sweetened cream. Always put a cloth under the steamer cover to 
absorb the moisture, thus preventing it from dropping back on the 
pudding. 

Cranberry Pudding — Another Recipe. — Another pudding may be made 



COOKING RECIPES 283 

of stale bread crumbs and cranberries. This is made exactly as you 
make bread puddings with raisins, except that a little less of the 
custard is poured over, for cranberries are more juicy than raisins. 
Bits of toasted bread may be used for this pudding. Put a layer in 
the bottom of the pudding-dish, then add a layer of the cranberries, 
and another layer of the toasted bread crumbs. The custard is 
poured over just before putting it into the oven. 

There Is Another Pudding that can be made by stirring cranberries 
into Indian-meal pudding just before putting it into the oven. In 
making this pudding you scald the corn-meal with boiling water, then 
slowly add milk until you have a rather thin batter. Then add about 
two tablespoonfuls of sugar, one tablespoonful of butter, a little cin- 
namon and salt and two eggs to every quart of the thin batter. Use 
about a teacupful of cranberries to every quart of the thin batter, 
stirring them in the last thing before putting the pudding into the oven. 

Cranberry Jelly. — Cranberry sauce often forms a jelly when cold, 
but cranberry jelly proper is always sifted and free from seeds and 
skin. The texture is not often clear and delicate like currant or 
apple jelly, for it is customary to use the pulp with the addition of 
water, as the fruit is somewhat deficient in juice. For one quart of 
berries, which have been picked over and washed, allow one cup of 
water and let them stew about twenty minutes. Turn into a hair 
sieve and rub the pulp through. Put on to boil again, add two cups 
of sugar and cook five minutes. Turn into a large fancy mold or 
individual glasses. 

Cranberry Soy. — Add to a quart of stewed cranberries rubbed 
through a sieve a teacupful of sugar, scant half-teacupful of vinegar, 
a teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful each of cinnamon, cloves and 
pepper. Boil gently until it will run slowly from a spoon. 

DATES AND FIGS 

Neither of these fruits is used in cookery to anything like the 
extent which their merits deserve. Dates and figs cost no more than 
many of the fruits more commonly used, and make a delightful 
change in the daily bill of fare. A few of either of these fruits, or a 
mixture of both, added to some of our commonest foods will change 
both appearance and taste until they seem like something entirely 
new. In the recipes for the use of these fruits, dates usually are 



284 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

mentioned, but in each instance figs may be substituted if either taste 
or convenience makes a change desirable. 

Date Bread. — When ready to put the dough into loaves to rise for 
the last time reserve what would make a fair-sized loaf and into it 
knead a cupful of finely chopped dates which have been well dredged 
with flour. Either form into a loaf or roll out and cut into shapes, 
but in either case rub over with melted butter. Let rise and bake. 

A Cupful of Chopped Dates mixed with apple sauce makes a 
decided change in that dish, for unless the apples are very tart no 
sugar is needed, and the flavor of the dates is so distinct that one 
hardly recognizes the apple sauce which is the foundation of the dish. 

A Fine Sandwich is made by spreading finely chopped dates between 
slices of bread which have been buttered and prepared as for any 
other sandwich. Another style of sandwich is made after this recipe: 
Make a dough with one cup of sugar, one-half cup of butter, one cup 
of sour cream, one egg and flour enough to make a dough which can 
be rolled thin. Roll this dough into two sheets. Cover one with 
split dates, place the other on top and press firmly together. Cut 
into fancy shapes and bake in a quick oven. Ice if desired. 

A Date Rice Pudding which may be made beforehand and served 
cold is a very simple affair. Cook half a cupful of rice until tender 
in a pint of milk. While hot add half a cup of chopped dates, mix 
thoroughly and press into small cups. Serve cold with any pudding 
sauce preferred. 

Another Pudding, to be served hot with cream and sugar, is made 
with one cup sour milk, one cup either of molasses or brown sugar, 
one tablespoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of soda, a pound of 
dates, either split or chopped, any spice liked, and enough graham 
flour to make a rather stiff batter. Steam two hours. 

Date Gems. — To one cup of chopped dates add two cupfuls sweet 
milk, one tablespoonful of butter and one well-beaten egg. Sift two 
teaspoonfuls of baking-powder with three cupfuls of flour and beat 
into the batter. Bake in gem-pans twenty minutes in a hot oven. 

A Dainty Confection.— Chop together an equal quantity of dates and 
nuts of any desired variety and moisten them with a sirup made by 
boiling sugar and water together. Split some dates into halves, pack 
as much of the mixture between the halves as can be made to stay in 
place, press firmly together and roll in powdered sugar. When pre- 



COOKING RECIPES 285 

paring the nuts save some whole, or half-meats, and place these in 
the center of some dates to make a variety. 

Date Puffs.— Two eggs, a cup of sugar, a quarter of a cup of butter, 
a teaspoonful of baking-powder, a third of a cup of milk and a cup of 

[flour; add to this a cup of stoned dates and steam till done in cups. 

• Serve with a hard sauce or fruit juice as preferred. 

Fig Pudding. — One cupful of molasses, one of chopped suet, one of 
milk, three and a quarter of flour, two eggs one teaspoonful of soda, 
one of cinnamon, half a teaspoonful of nu meg, one pint of figs. Mix 
together the molasses, suet, spice and the figs cut fine. Dissolve the 
soda with a tablespoonful of hot water and mix with the milk; add 
to the other ingredients. Beat the eggs light and stir into the 
mixture; add the flour and beat thoroughly. Butter a round mold 
and steam for five hours. Serve with cream or white sauce. Date 
pudding may be made in the same way, dates being substituted for 
the figs. 

Fig Custard. — Make a baked custard, previously covering the bottom 
of the cups or pudding-dish with shredded figs. Serve very cold. 

Stuffed Figs with Whipped Cream. — Roll figs until pliable, make an 
incision in one side and fill with a teaspoonful of chopped nuts, any 
kind. Fasten with thread, cover with boiling water and cook fifteen 
minutes. Remove the threads, sweeten and serve with whipped cream. 

PUDDING SAUCES 

Orange Sauce. — Two heaping teaspoonfuls of corn-starch, dissolved 
in water, with boiling water poured on to make a smooth, thick paste; 
add a beaten egg, a heaping teaspoonful of butter and a small cupful 
of sugar. When cooked add the juice of two oranges. Serve hot. 

Raspberry Sauce. — A very good dumpling sauce is made by simply 
whipping together until very light half a pint each of cream and 
raspberry juice. The cream should be thick and rich. 

Chocolate Sauce is made by melting three ounces, or three squares 
of chocolate which is dissolved in one-half cupful of sugar and 
one-half cupful of boiling water. Stir until smooth and then add 
one-fourth tablespoonful of vanilla. 

Caramel Sauce. — Put one cupful of sugar in a small pan and stir on 
the fire until brown; add one cupful of boiling water and simmer 
fifteen minutes. Set away to cool slightly and serve with pudding. 



2 86 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Fruit Pudding Sauce. — One-half cupful sugar, one cupful boiling 
water, one tablespoonful corn-starch, same of butter, one and one-half 
tablespoonfuls of lemon juice and a few gratings of nutmeg. Mix 
sugar and corn-starch, add water gradually, stirring constantly; boil 
five minutes, remove from fire, add butter, lemon juice and nutmeg. 

Fruit Cream Sauce to serve with fruit cake when used as pudding. 
Take one cupful of sugar, one-half cupful of butter and four table- 
spoonfuls each of cream and fruit juice. One usually has a little 
fruit juice left over when opening the canned fruit in the winter. 
Heat this over and can it again for just such purposes. Put the 
sugar, butter and cream into a custard kettle and beat it until it 
becomes thick and frosty, then add the fruit juice just before serving. 

Foamy Sauce. — One-half cupful of butter, one cupful of powdered 
sugar, one teaspoonful of vanilla, one-quarter cupful of boiling water, 
two tablespoonfuls of sherry, the white of one egg. Cream the 
butter and sugar, add the vanilla and wine and beat them well. Just 
before serving stir in the boiling water, add the whipped white of one 
egg and beat until foamy. 

Pudding Sauce. — Take one cupful of powdered sugar and one-half 
cupful each of butter, sweet cream and boiling water. Rub the 
butter and sugar together, then add the cream and the boiling water 
and let it cook for two minutes in a double boiler, stirring constantly. 
Flavor with vanilla. This is a very simple sauce and may be used 
for other puddings, but it is especially good when the nut cake is to 
be used for a pudding. 

Brandy Sauce. — Put into the saucepan two cupfuls of water with 
one cupful of sugar. When the sugar is dissolved and the water 
boils add slowly a heaping tablespoonful of corn-starch diluted with 
a little cold water. Stir until the corn-starch is clear, then remove 
from the fire and add two tablespoonfuls of brandy. Serve hot. 

Simple Sauce. — One-half cup of sugar, one-fourth cup of butter, one 
tablespoonful of flour; mix all together, add one grate of nutmeg and 
two cupfuls of hot water; boil five minutes. 

HOW FRUIT FLAVORS SHOULD BE BLENDED 

A sort of general classification of the various fruit flavors that 
blend will prove a ready reference for the housewife who wishes to 
exercise her inventive skill on something a little different. They 



COOKING RECIPES 287 

may be combined with the palatable results found in many of the 
best fruit salads, permitting various substitutions as convenience or 
fancy may suggest. 

Cranberries and raisins combine in a most delicious flavor when 
used in the proportions of a half teacupful of raisins to one quart of 
cranberries. Raisins and nice, tart apples yield a mellow, toothsome 
flavor, while upon the pineapple we may ring a great variety of 
changes: Pineapple and orange, for instance; pineapple.'orange and 
banana; pineapple and lemon; banana and lemon; banana and 
orange; banana, lemon and orange. 

Raspberries and currants, two parts of the former to one of the 
latter, blend delightfully, and there is perfect harmony in red rasp- 
berry and lemon. Strawberries, so delicious in themselves, form 
delectable compounds when used as a basis with the following 
additions: notably with orange; pleasing with lemon when sweet 
strawberries are used; while strawberries with vanilla yield a 
peculiarly delightfully flavor difficult to analyze. Strawberries, pine- 
apples, bananas, lemons and sweet Florida oranges, all in one, 
combine in luscious effect, if time be given them to blend in one 
harmonious whole. 

Cherries blend with pineapple. If the juice from a can of pine- 
apple be added to one quart of cherries, and this frozen according to 
recipes for frozen fruits, it will please the most exacting taste. Black- 
berries, blueberries or grapes will never disagree with the lemon, 
neither will pear, apple or quince; pear, pineapple and cherries, three 
delights in one, never disappoint, and for ambrosial effect in the way 
of a tutti frutti of candied fruits you may add to a pure, sweetened 
frozen cream, cherries, strawberries, apricots, angelica, pears, Chinese 
oranges and a little candied ginger. With perfect harmony of flavor 
you may combine sultanas, figs, dates and citron in the same way, all 
cut fine, and add also, if you wish, nuts and shredded cocoanut. 

PRESERVING AND CANNING 

There is an art about preserving and canning. Pleasure and 
profit wait upon this art when it is once learned. The table reflects 
the thriftiness of the housewife if it shows various fruits tastefully 
preserved. 



i88 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

To be successful with fruits absolute cleanliness must be observed. 
This does not mean simply washing and wiping the cans; it means to 
have them absolutely sterile, sufficiently heated to kill anything that 
may fall into or upon them from the air. While the fruit jars gener- 
ally receive careful attention from housewives the matter of steriliz- 
ing the covers before using is often overlooked. These may have 
lain for a long time upon the top shelf of some closet and should be 
put into cold water and this brought to the boiling point. They 
should then be taken out one by one with a clean skimmer and each 
slipped upon its jar. They should not be handled with the fingers 
except to screw quickly into place, nor be left on the table, nor wiped 
with towels that have been hanging in the kitchen. Any of these 
things might make useless the sterilizing process, as germs may be 
picked up in this way after the sterilization has been accomplished. 

The process of canning different small fruits varies but little. 
Select perfectly sound and fresh fruit. This is the first secret of 
keeping canned fruit. Fruits may be canned with or without sugar. 
Sugar takes no part in their preservation and often causes fermenta- 
tion. All fruits should be lightly cooked (fruit does not require as 
much cooking as some are ready to believe) that they may retain 
their natural flavor. 

The cans should be filled to overflowing, for as the liquid cools it 
will condense. Look over the fruit carefully, wash and put in granite 
or porcelain kettle, then add the sugar. Let stand a few minutes to 
dissolve the sugar somewhat and extract some of the juices before 
heating them, then let them come to a boil for about a minute for 
most small fruits. 

To keep the jars from breaking set them in a dish of cold water 
so the water will be about two inches deep around the bottle, or 
stand them on a towel wet with cold water. 

Fill to overflowing and turn the covers on tight; as the cans get 
cool the covers can again be tightened. You can do the work more 
rapidly in this way than by filling the jars with uncooked fruit. In 
the latter method put them into a boiler of cold water filled nearly to 
the tops of the jars, and then brought to the boiling point, and let 
boil from ten to fifteen minutes. This is the best way to have fruit 
retain its shape, but as far as the keeping quality is concerned there 
seems to be no difference. 



COOKING RECIPES ,89 

In Canning Peaches and Pears, peel them, take out pits or cores, 
keeping them closely covered, and make a sirup, cooking only a 
small quantity in the sirup at one time, care being taken not to 
break the pieces. Fill the cans with the pieces of the fruit, then pour 
on as much of the sirup as the can will contain and cover as for 
other fruit. 

For Canning Apples you need not use sugar, and in this way they 
retain their flavor and color and are just as nice for sauce and pies 
as fresh apples. 

In Canning Ordinary Plums, after washing put a quantity in a 
granite kettle and cover with cold water, let them come to scalding 
point, then add a teaspoonful of soda to each two gallons of water, 
which will make the skin tender and take away the puckering taste 
that some plums have, skim out the plums, add the sugar and can in 
the usual way. 

Blackberries. — Fill the can with raw berries — don't press down — 
jostle the can to make them settle. Fill with water, and seal. Put in 
boiling water and boil ten minutes. Take out and seal ventand boil 
ten minutes more. 

In Making Jams the fruit should be carefully cleaned and bruised, 
as washing it for cooking prevents the fruit from becoming hard. 
Boil fifteen or twenty minutes before adding the sugar, as the flavor 
of the fruit is thus better retained, then boil slowly for half an hour 
longer. Allow about three-fourths of a pound of sugar to a pound of 
fruit. Jams require almost constant stirring, and every housekeeper 
should be provided with a wooden paddle for stirring jams and 
marmalades. 

Jellies. — The juices of some fruits will not form jelly, and only that 
of a very few will jelly without sugar. There is no reason, however, 
why jellies should always be made a pound of sugar to a pint of 
juice. Quinces and currants, as well as the ordinary crabapple, cran- 
berry and green grapes, make better jelly when only half a pound of 
sugar is allowed to a pint of juice. Small fruits should be simply 
mashed and drained. Boil the juice and skim, have the sugar heated 
hot, then add slowly, constantly stirring until the sugar is dissolved. 
Generally it will be jellied by the time it comes to a boil. A little 
may be tried in a saucer; if it wrinkles or if it hardens as dropped 
from the spoon it is ready for the glasses and should be skimmed, 



2 9 a PRACTICAL RECIPES 

strained and put into them. If it is boiled too long it will rope, be 
like sirup, and never go back to the jellying point. 

For Apple and Crabapple Jelly, wash the apples and quarter with- 
out paring; put in a granite or porcelain-lined kettle, cover with cold 
water and bring to boiling point. Turn into a jelly-bag and drain, boil 
and skim, add the sugar, boil and skim and pour into glasses. If the 
jelly seems thin it will help to thicken by standing in the sun a day or 
two. 

KEEPING CANNED FRUIT 

It Is Best Always to Label with name and date the glass jars of 
fruit, berries, preserves, etc. The gummed flaps of unused 
envelopes, or those which have been used, but not sealed, are useful 
for this purpose. 

One Word about Fruit Jars. — If every housewife will use sawdust 
and pack her jars in it, it will keep them cool in summer and keep 
them from freezing in the winter. Keep all canned fruits in a cool, 
dark place, because they lose flavor and change color by being 
exposed to the light. Jellies should be kept where it is cool, dry and 
dark. 

Best Protection for Jelly. — Jelly keeps much better if hot paraffin is 
poured over each tumbler than when covered with paper. 

CANNING VEGETABLES 

To can vegetables use glass jars of uniform size, packing in the 
vegetables firmly. Screw on the tops lightly and set the jars on a 
rack or board in the boiler. Fill with warm water until it reaches 
half way to the top of the jars. Cover and boil four hours. Take 
off the tops to let out the gas and fill with boiling water. Screw on 
the covers tightly and lift out the jars with a damp towel. The 
secret of keeping vegetables perfectly by this method lies in keeping 
the air from them after boiling. That is why they should be sealed 
nearly air-tight before they are boiled, and why but one jar should be 
removed at a time from the boiler, sealing it immediately. 

To Can Corn, Beans, Peas, Etc. — After cleaning the ears of corn cut 
off with a sharp knife about two-thirds of the corn, then with the 
back of the knife scrape the rest of the kernels off the cob; fill the 
can or jar one-third full of corr pack down gently with the small end 



COOKING RECIPES 291 

of a potato masher, put in more corn and pack again, and continue 
until the can is full to the top. Put on the rubber and screw the top 
on very tight, put some hay or straw in the wash-boiler and on it set 
(or lay) the filled cans; fill the boiler with cold water (be sure to cover 
the cans), set the boiler on the stove and let boil for three hours or 
more. When you remove the cans try if possible to screw the cover 
on more securely. After the jars are cool wrap each one in paper 
and set away in the dark. This is essential. Succotash and green 
beans are put up in the same way, also peas. Put in the cans and 
shake down very closely (you cannot pack them as corn); put on the 
rubbers, screw on the covers and boil the same way as corn. Peas 
will shrink in the jars, but corn will not if packed hard. 

Salting Down Green Corn. — Cover the bottom of a clean keg or 
barrel with salt, put in a layer of corn with the husks on, cover with 
salt and proceed in the same manner with alternate layers of salt and 
corn. When all is in, lay on a large stone and cover with a pickle of 
salt and water. To use, remove the husks, soak twenty-four hours in 
cold water and cook as new corn. If not fresh enough change the 
water and soak longer. Or leave all but the outer husks on the corn 
and tie down tightly over the cob at the silk end; pack closely in a 
clean keg or barrel, lay on a weight, and cover with brine about 
two-thirds the strength of pickle for meat. 

To Can Corn and Tomatoes Together. — Cook the corn on the cob as 
if for table use, and then cut the kernels off. Peel and slice toma- 
toes as for cooking. Mix a pint of the cut corn with a quart of the 
prepared tomatoes and cook long enough to cook the tomatoes 
thoroughly. Season rather highly with salt and pepper and can 
while boiling hot. 

Tomatoes. — Take a small thin sack, sew a strong loop across the 
top to lift it by, fill with tomatoes and put in boiling water two 
minutes; cut out the hard part where the stem grew and the skin will 
slip off. Pack in can, pouring off some of the juice, and you will 
have more room for tomatoes. Seal and boil ten minutes; seal the 
vent and boil thirty minutes. 

When Canning String Beans, cook them in a very little salted water 
for ten minutes. 

All Canned Vegetables should be removed from the can and exposed 
to the air for at least fifteen minutes before they are prepared for the 



2 9 * PRACTICAL RECIPES 

table. This exposure gives them more of the flavor of the fresh 
vegetables and renders them more wholesome. 

CANDIES AND SV/EETMEATS 

As nearly every one is born with a "sweet tooth" it is but natural 
and right that this craving for sweets should be gratified, at least 
occasionally. For those engaged in active pursuits requiring more 
or less muscular exertion nature demands a good per cent of sugar. 
Here are a few recipes for simple, wholesome and palatable sweet- 
meats and dainties which may please better than some of the high- 
priced, or the cheap adulterated candies in the stores. 

Peanut Candy. — Carefully roast two quarts of peanuts till of a rich 
cream tint; shell, removing the inner skins as well; place one and a 
half pounds of granulated sugar in a saucepan with just sufficient 
water to moisten, adding a lump of butter the size of an egg. Boil 
until a little dropped off a spoon into a cup of cold water is crisp, and 
shows a light cream color. Have two-thirds of the shelled nuts 
spread upon buttered plates; pour candy over them and immediately 
while still hot sprinkle on the remaining nuts. When cold break into 
convenient sized pieces. This will be found crisp and delicious. 
A grated cocoanut may be substituted for the peanuts if desired. 

Sugar Sirup. — Two pounds sugar to one pint of water. Boil ten 
minutes. Add one cup of pure maple sirup as flavoring. Pour the 
sirup into bottles and keep sealed in a cool place. 

Hickory-nut Candy. — Boil till thick two cups of sugar and half a cup 
of water, flavor with vanilla or lemon, stir in one cup of hickory-nut 
kernels, pour the candy into a flat dish and cut it in squares when cold. 

Molasses Taffy.- — Molasses two cups, sugar one cup, butter size of a 
small egg, soda one-half teaspoonful. Put molasses, sugar and butter 
together and boil to nearly the brittle point, add the soda, and if not 
brittle when dropped into cold water boil until it is. Pour into 
buttered plates to cool, then pull. 

Fudges. — Two cups sugar, one cup milk, one tablespoonful butter, 
quarter cake chocolate, pinch of salt, one tablespoonful vanilla. 
Cook until thick, remove and beat to a cream. Put in buttered 
dishes to cool and cut in squares. 

Bonbons. — Stone one-half pound of fresh dates, seed one-half 
pound of layer raisins, and remove the stems from one-half pound of 



COOKING RECIPES 293 

fine figs. Force all through a meat chopper with three-fourths of a 
pound of mixed nut meats chopped rather fine — almonds, pecans 
and walnuts are the best. Moisten with sweet cream and form into 
miniature balls; roll in confectioners' sugar and then in freshly 
shredded cocoanut. 

Popcorn Balls. — Slowly beat one cupful of strained honey and boil 
until it will stiffen and crack when dropped into cold water. Pour it 
at once over one quart of freshly popped corn and shape into balls, 
greasing the hands with a little butter to prevent sticking. 

Popcorn Wafers. — Make boiled frosting with one cupful of sugar 
and white of one egg. Stir into it thickly nice white popcorn, 
buttered and salted. Put on wafer crackers, having the frosting an 
inch thick. Brown slightly in oven. 

BEVERAGES 

Drink plenty of water, so say the doctors. They do not, as a 
rule, advise it in quantity with the food, but in the morning before 
breakfast and often midway between meals. Naturally it should be 
as pure as possible, either boiled, distilled or filtered, unless its source 
is of unquestionable purity. 

Favorite Home-made Beverage. — A drink of which most men are 
fond may be made by adding one teaspoonful of sifted ginger, three 
tablespoonfuls of sugar and a half cupful of vinegar to every quart of 
cold water. Stir this well and it is ready to serve. 

Koumyss and How to Make It. — In making koumyss use quart 
bottles, putting into each four tablespoonfuls of fresh yeast and one 
tablespoonful of powdered sugar; then filling it with warm milk fresh 
from the cow. The bottles are corked tightly and allowed to stand 
in a warm place until the liquid begins to thicken, then placed on 
their sides in the cellar for a week, when they are ready for use. 

Hot Apple Punch. — This is a beverage built to serve on Hallowe'en 
night, but no doubt will be fully appreciated at other times. Roast 
three high-flavored apples and remove pulp to a deep pitcher. Add 
to skins one teaspoonful cinnamon, half teaspoonful each of cloves 
and grated nutmeg. Mash and add to pulp, and pour over three pints 
hot sweet cider. 

Egg Cocktails. — Into a tall, slender glass pour a tablespoonful of 
catsup, six drops of lemon juice, two drops of Worcestershire sauce, 



j04 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

a dash of paprika, a few grains of salt and pepper. Over all break a 
fresh egg. Serve individually. 

Egyptian Coffee is black coffee flavored with attar of roses. 

How to Make Ginger Beer. — Break two ounces of ginger root into 
small pieces and put it into a large crock with two ounces of cream 
of tartar, the rind and juice of one lemon and one and one-half 
pounds of sugar. Four quarts of boiling water are poured over this 
and allowed to stand until it is lukewarm, then one-half cupful of 
yeast is added. This should stand for six hours, then strain it, put it 
into sealed bottles and keep in a cool place. 

Another Recipe for Ginger Beer. — Scald a sliced lemon and a table- 
spoonful of ginger in a gallon of water, sweeten it to taste, and when 
it is cool add half a pint of yeast. 

How to Make Root Beer. — In making root beer take a cupful each of 
bloodroot and prickly-ash bark broken into bits, two cupfuls each 
cherry bark and poplar bark, four each of burdock root and dande- 
lion root, eight each of spikenard root and sarsaparilla, a double 
handful of hops and a cupful of yeast. Wash the roots and barks 
thoroughly, cover them with cold water and allow them to boil slowly 
until the strength is extracted, then strain, dilute the concoction to 
the required strength and sweeten to taste. When cool add the 
yeast and let it stand in open crocks for twenty-four hours, then 
bottle, sealing closely. This is ready to drink in about two days. If 
spruce twigs or wintergreen are added it improves the taste. 

Wash Your Lemons. — Put the lemons in cold water for a brief period 
and dry them off with a clean, rough crash towel. Then you can 
enjoy your lemonade, juice, pulp and circles of rind all in all, without 
concern or misgiving, provided your water is pure. 

There Are Two Ways of Making Lemonade, to squeeze the juice 
into cold water — this is the shortest way; or to cut in slices and then 
boil it. Lemonade is one of the best and safest drinks we have and 
is good for anybody whether in health or not. It is suitable for all 
stomach diseases and is excellent in sickness. The pips, crushed, 
may be mixed with water and used as a drink. 

Soda Lemonade is especially fine for people with a gouty, rheumatic 
tendency. Squeeze the juice of half a large lemon (free from seeds) 
into a tumbler, add to it a teaspoon of sugar (as heaping as it is 
possible to make i ) stir to dissolve it, fill up a scant three-quarters 



COOKING RECIPES 295 

with ice-water and then stir in a scant third of a teaspoon (level) of 
bicarbonate of soda. When the foam nears the top of the glass you 
may begin to sip from it, or it may surprise you by overflowing. If 
you prefer your lemonade sweeter you can regulate the quantity of 
sugar after trying the recipe; if you make it too sweet it will have a 
flat taste. 

Wholesome Drink for Hot Weather. — A fine summer drink for the 
harvest field, which is both wholesome and palatable, is made as 
follows: Make oatmeal into a thin gruel, season it to taste with salt, 
sugar and a little grated nutmeg, with one well beaten egg to each 
gallon stirred in while the gruel is warm. Dilute this to proper 
thickness for drinking and strain it through a cloth. It is most 
refreshing to the hot and thirsty workmen. Even raw oatmeal 
stirred into a bucket of cold water makes a drink refreshing and 
cooling. 

How to Preserve Fruit Juices. — Fruit juices may be put up and used 
for beverages at any time of the year in the following manner: Heat 
the fruit and strain it as in making jelly, then cook it for fifteen 
minutes, skimming it until it is clear. Add one cupful of heated 
sugar to every quart of juice, boil it ten minutes and seal it up in cans. 
When wanted for use a few spoonfuls are added to a cupful of cold 
water. 

To Preserve Blackberry Juice. — If people understood how valuable as 
a medicine blackberry juice (not wine) is, they would bestir them- 
selves to preserve as much as possible. In all summer complaints its 
equal cannot be found as a food and medicine. There are two ways 
of keeping: One is canning the berries and straining it out as you 
need it; the other is straining it and bottling it. Boil half an hour 
with cork stopper in bottle. When done press stopper in tightly; tie 
a cloth over it and put away in a dark place. It would be well to 
take the vessel in which the bottles were boiled from the fire and let 
the water get cold before taking them up, as the cold air might break 
them. All kinds of fruit juices can be preserved in this way. 

Grape Wine. — Crush twenty pounds of grapes; put them in a 
wooden tub and pour over them six quarts of boiling water; let them 
stand four or five days in a warm room, stirring them three or four 
times each day; strain and add ten pounds of sugar; then put all into 
a cask. The cask should be full. As the wine ferments a part of the 



296 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

contents will run out of the open bung. In order that this process 
may be complete more of the juice should be added. After fermen- 
tation ceases close up bung and bottle in the spring. 

Elderberry Wine. — Eight quarts of berries, four quarts of boiling 
water poured over the berries; let them stand twelve hours, stirring 
now and then; strain; add three pounds of sugar to four quarts of 
juice, one ounce of powdered cinnamon, one-half ounce of powdered 
cloves. Boil five minutes; then set away to ferment in a stone jar 
with a cloth thrown lightly over it. When it is done fermenting pour 
it off carefully, bottle and cork tightly. 

To Keep Cider Sweet. — Cider brought to a boil, skimmed and then 
put into bottles in cool cellars will keep as long as wanted. Those 
who are fond of sweet cider, in this way can arrange to have it at all 
times. If a slight fermentation is desired a gallon or two may be 
drawn into a common jug and exposed to the air for a day or two. 
Cider should be boiled in copper or iron, and not in tin or galvanized 
iron pans. 

Grape Juice Can Be Treated in the Same Way, and a wholesome, sweet 
and palatable drink always be kept at hand. 

Orangeade. — One egg, juice of one orange, two spoonfuls sugar, 
two-thirds cup water. Beat egg light, mix sugar and orange juice, 
then add egg and last the water, stirring all well. Milk can be used 
in place of water. Nice for thirsty invalids. 

Cider. — Pure cider cannot be made from rotten fruit. The best 
cider is made late in the fall from winter apples. 

To keep well cider should be stored in a cool cellar where fermen- 
tation will be slow. When cider has passed through the first violent 
fermentation and when it is safe to do so, the barrel should be filled 
up full and bunged tight. It should be left for two or three months 
and then carefully drawn off into bottles or jugs and sealed. It will 
then keep sweet in any ordinary cool cellar. Cider cannot be kept 
sweet without the aid of chemicals, which affect both its flavor and 
healthfulness. When kept in barrels which gradually become empty 
as it is drawn off, air naturally takes its place. This produces constant 
fermentation and it will first become hard, and in due time go into 
vinegar. Grape juice treated in the same manner will act in about 
the same way. It is only wines that have been fortified with spirits 
and sugar that will remain sweet in barrels, while sour wines must bo 



COOKING RECIPES 297 

bottled and properly stored to keep just as when first put up. With 
some modifications the treatment of grape wine and cider is very 
much alike. 

Piquette, a French "Soft Drink." — Five pounds of raisins, five pounds 
of dried apples and five gallons of water. Put in an open cask and 
let stand for three days; bottle with a half teaspoonful of sugar and 
a bit of cinnamon in each bottle. Vary the flavor to suit the taste. 

Raspberry Acid. — In four pints of water dissolve three ounces tar- 
taric acid; pour it over four quarts of raspberries and let stand twenty- 
four hours; strain without pressing, and to each pint of juice add one 
and one-half pounds of sugar; stir till it dissolves. Let stand forty- 
eight hours, bottle and seal. To use, put a little into water. 

Oatmeal Drink. — Dissolve one-quarter cup of oatmeal in a jug of 
water, let settle, and drink cold. Take one-half pound of sugar, one- 
half a lemon sliced small, and one-half pound fine oatmeal; mix them 
with a little warm water first, and then pour on four quarts of boiling 
water; stir well together, let settle, and use cold. Any other flavor- 
ing can be used instead of the lemon if desired. Mix together grad- 
ually, in four quarts of boiling water, one-half pound sugar, one-half 
pound fine oatmeal and four ounces cocoa. Use when cold. 

Pineapple Beverage. — Take one pineapple, peel, slice and pound to 
a pulp. Take two cups of water, add three-fourths pound sugar, boil, 
skim, and pour it hot on the pineapple pulp; add the juice of a lemon 
and let stand two hours covered; then filter through cloth and add 
two pints of cold water. Ice when served. 

Apple Water. — Take tart apples, quarter and core; add one-half 
their weight of sugar, cover with water and simmer till tender; strain 
through a jelly bag and cool. Put pounded ice in the glass when you 
drink it. 

Cocoanut Beverage. — Break two cocoanuts, saving the milk carefully; 
grate the cocoanuts, add them to milk and also four pints of water; 
put in a saucepan and boil five minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon 
continually to prevent burning; then strain, add three-fourths pound 
of powdered sugar and mix well. Ice it and serve. 

Gooseberry Shrub. — Take green gooseberries, pour on boiling water 
to cover, let stand till cool with a cloth spread over the jar; strain off 
the juice, heat it and pour on again; then strain, and to each pint of 
juice add one pint of sugar; boil, skim and bottle. 



CHAPTER XII 
WOMAN'S TOILET 

How to Perfect and Maintain Beauty in All Its Forms — Including Instruc- 
tions and Recipes on the Care of the Complexion — Removal of Freckles, 
Blemishes, Etc. — Mow to Treat the Hair, Eyes, Teeth, Hands and Feet 
— Also How to Develop or Reduce the Form, with General Instructions 
for the Maintenance of Health and Beauty. 

This subject is one about which every woman should have definite 
and practical information. There are few of the feminine sex who 
can spend a large share of their time in caring for their person, 
although all owe it to themselves, as well as others, to present as 
attractive an appearance as possible. This statement is to be partic- 
ularly emphasized, when it is remembered that cleanliness, exercise 
and common-sense diet are invariably placed, in these days, at the 
foundation of all true comeliness. 

THE COMPLEXION AND HOW TO CARE FOR IT 

As long as there are women in the world there will be com- 
plexions to worry about, and there is some beneficence in such 
discontent, for it argues a superior feminine nature to try and secure 
a good complexion. To be satisfied with a sallow, muddy skin, when 
it can be rectified, is not very complimentary to the individual. One 
cause of a poor complexion often is indigestion, and this trouble can 
be cured by eating the proper food and using precaution. Since 
frequent bathing is necessary to secure perfect health it also 
promotes good looks. The restfulness and sense of delightful clean- 
liness that follows the bath are well worth any trouble or incon- 
venience they may cost us. 

An excellent bathing recipe to secure a healthy glow, and which 
leaves the skin soft and velvety, is a half pound of borax dissolved in 
twelve gallons of warm water. It dissolves quickly, makes the water 
soft and cleanses thoroughly, leaving you with a feeling of restfulness 
which is wonderful. It is also soothing to any skin irritation or heat 

298 



TOILET RECIPES 4$$ 

which may break out upon the body in very hot weather. Every 
woman should keep a flesh brush for occasional use. 

It is a good plan upon returning from a walk or drive or any out- 
of-door exercise to bathe the face, in order to remove the dust that has 
gathered upon it. Almost every woman uses a little face powder 
occasionally, and as there are many injurious articles on the market 
it is well to prepare it at home. A few cents will supply the needful 
quantity. Mix half a pound of finely powdered starch with two and 
a half ounces of freshly powdered orris root, then run through a sieve. 
Put a little in a bag of thin flannel and apply it by shaking it lightly 
on the face. 

"Of course the basis of a good complexion is cleanliness — in fact 
it even affects the arch of the neck," says a writer, "for every woman 
can hold her head higher when she knows she is absolutely clean." 

It is impossible to give direct instructions to meet every case, but 
we present many useful recipes for the care of the complexion and 
removal of blemishes therefrom, all of which may be used without 
injury. The general rules for the complexion may be mentioned as 
below: 

i. Don't use hard water at all; use warm water at night. 

2. Don't fail to thoroughly dry the face. Don't use fancy soaps, 
but pure white castile. 

3. Don't fail (after washing) to rub the face up and down, especially 
near the nose. 

4. Don't eat fat meats, pastries, salads or highly spiced foods. 

5. Don't drink strong tea or coffee. 

6. Don't use cheap face powders. 

7. Don't worry; it produces wrinkles. 

8. Don't give way to violent emotions. By following this rule you 
will do more to help your complexion and beauty than by using all 
the toilet creams invented. Now as to details. 

HOW TO TREAT THE COMPLEXION 

The Complexion Brush. — The correct complexion brush is made of 
firm bristles about three-quarters of an inch long. These bristles do 
not mat down when put in water. The brush should be used every 
night with warm water and castile soap, creme marquise being 
applied afterward. This treatment is excellent for any bad com- 



3 oo PRACTICAL RECIPES 

plexion, because it stimulates the glands and skin and stirs the blood 
vessels to action. 

Creme Marquise. — One-quarter ounce of white wax, two and one- 
half ounces spermaceti, two and one-half ounces oil of sweet 
almonds; melt, remove from fire and add one and one-half ounces 
rosewater. Beat till creamy, not till cold. Use only one-fourth 
ounce of white wax — more will make it too hard. 

Face Powder. — Talcum powder, sixteen ounces; bismuth oxide, one 
ounce; zinc oxide, one ounce. Sift through silk bolting cloth. 

Complexion Powder. — Two ounces of purest zinc oxide, seven ounces 
of rice powder, two ounces of precipitated chalk, one ounce of 
talcum powder, one ounce of powdered orris root, two or three drops 
of oil of rose. Tint with a suggestion of powdered carmine. Mix by 
sifting many times. 

Lavender Lotion for Softening the Water. — Four ounces of alcohol, 
one-half ounce of ammonia, one drachm of oil of lavender. A tea- 
spoonful to a bowlful of warm water. 

Dainty Perfume. — Many women use quite too much perfume. The 
sweetest fragrance is that of freshly laundered linen and a daily 
scrub. If one prefers one can touch the ear lobes and hair with a 
tiny suggestion of violet or rose, but the scent must be both delicate 
and elusive. 

Violet Sachet — Eight ounces of ground orris, five drops of oil of 
bergamot, three drops of oil of bitter almonds, seven drops of oil of 
rose, one and one-fourth drachms of tincture of musk. Mix the whole 
thoroughly. Place in tiny cheese-cloth bags and lay in dresser 
drawers and gown boxes. 

REMOVING BLEMISHES 

If you have any blemishes to be removed follow the directions to 
be found hereafter: 

For Florid Complexions. — Anyone suffering from a florid complexion 
must take extremely good care of the diet, avoiding highly spiced 
dishes, rich pastries, hot drinks, etc. Every morning jump into a 
cold salt water bath. At night apply creme marquise to the com- 
plexion. 

For a Rough, Harsh Complexion. — A rough, harsh complexion is 
most frequently caused by hard water and impure soaps. Use the 



TOILET RECIPES 3°i 

pure white imported castile, and get a correct complexion brush. 
Use the brush every night with warm water and the soap, drying the 
face thoroughly and rubbing in creme marquise. This is an abso- 
lutely sure cure for blackheads if the scrubbing is thorough, and it 
certainly will remedy any case of roughness requiring treatment. 

For Red Face. — If you are troubled with an over-ruddy complexion 
you should use only tepid or cold water on your face. Avoid highly 
spiced, stimulating dishes, also hot drinks and fatty foods. After 
bathing the face at night apply creme marquise. 

Lotion for Oily Skin. — Dried rose leaves, one ounce; white wine 
vinegar, one-half pint; rose water, one-half pint. Pour the vinegar 
upon the rose leaves and let it stand for one week; then strain and 
add the rose water, throwing the rose leaves away. The lotion may 
be used either pure or diluted by putting about a tablespoonful into a 
cupful of rainwater. Do not keep in a metal vessel. 

Ointment for Red Nose. — One drachm of powdered sulphur, two and 
one-half drachms of powdered starch, one and one-half ounces of 
ointment of zinc oxide, three drops of oil of rose; mix well. Apply 
at bedtime. 

How to Treat Enlarged or Indented Pores. — When the pores of the 
skin become indented there is nothing more speedily effective than 
scientific massage and electric treatments. Bathing with cold salt 
water every morning is very good. At night bathe the face with a 
complexion brush, warm water and pure castile soap, afterward 
anointing with creme marquise. 

How to Remove Blackheads. — Blackheads are caused by not washing 
the face at all, or by doing so imperfectly. Cleanliness is the perma- 
nent remedy for same. To remove blackheads take plenty of hot 
water, pure castile soap and a complexion brush, and wash your face 
thoroughly every night. Rinse dry, rubbing it both up and down. 
Twice a week apply a saturated solution of magnesia, put on with a 
sponge. If this is followed faithfully and your diet is what it ought 
to be, you will not be troubled with blackheads. 

Facial Eruptions and How to Cure Them. — Facial eruptions are actual 
beauty ills that cannot be denied. Every woman thus afflicted should 
make great efforts to be rid of these horrors. Diet is most necessary, 
•and the daily bath with salt water and a bath brush essential. At 
night the face should be washed thoroughly with white castile soap, 



3 o2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

warm water and a complexion brush of bristles, for soap and water 
are fine antiseptics. Every morning open the pimples with a needle 
and apply hydrozone. This unites with the poisonous fluids and 
burns them to a crisp. 

To Remove Moles. — The acid nitrate of mercury is recommended 
as effectual for the removal of small moles. It should be applied 
with a splinter of wood in very small quantities for a few seconds, 
carefully avoiding the sound skin. There is no pain of consequence 
and the mole shrivels away and drops off in a few days. 

Treatment for Large Stubborn Moles. — Acetic acid applied to moles 
will often remove them, but it is best to consult an electrolysis 
operator. 

Freckles and How to Remove Them. — A very successful mixture for 
removing freckles consists of two parts of sulpho-carbolate of zinc, 
twenty-five parts of distilled glycerine, twenty-five parts of rose 
water and five parts of scented alcohol. Apply the mixture twice 
daily for from half an hour to an hour, and then wash it off with cold 
water. 

For Rough Skin, Sunburn, Etc., Cosmetic Jelly Better than Vaseline or 
Cold Cream. — Sixty grains of gum tragacanth, seven ounces of rose- 
water; soak for two days, adding one ounce of glycerine and one 
ounce of alcohol, a few drops of oil of rose and a teaspoonful of 
borax. 

Ointment for Severe Cases of Freckles. — Spermaceti, one hundred 
and twenty grains; white wax, one hundred and twenty grains; oil of 
sweet almonds, four drachms; salicylic acid, eight grains; white pre- 
cipitate, four grains. Rub on every night with a clean finger. 

Tattoo Marks— How to Remove Them. — Those who have been so 
unfortunate or foolish as to have tattoo marks made on their skin 
usually wish to remove them in later years. In some cases they are 
quite indelible, but in some instances the drawings have been taken 
out by being first well rubbed with a salve of pure acetic acid and 
lard, then with a solution of potash, and finally with hydrochloric 
acid. 

Moth-patch Ointment. — One ounce of benzoinated lard, one drachm 
of white precipitate, one drachm of subnitrate of bismuth. Bathe the 
face at night with warm water, pure castile soap and a complexion 
brush. Rinse and dry thoroughly, then apply the ointment. Wash 



TOILET RECIPES m 

away next morning with tepid or cold water. Drink much butter- 
milk. 

Inflamed Face. — If your face is inflamed this will heal it: A satu- 
rate solution of boric acid is good for almost any sort of inflamma- 
tion. It is often applied after the electric needle has been used for 
the removal of superfluous hair, and it helps the tissue to heal at 
once. Put one ounce of the boric acid crystals in a quart glass jar 
and fill with hot water. Apply a suggestion of this twice a day with 
a bit of absorbent cotton. 

How Scars May Be Removed. — The X-ray is used quite successfully 
now for removing scars. Certain medicinal agencies are applied at 
the same time. If the scar is not very deep it can be blotted away to 
a considerable extent by a warm solution of boric acid. Dissolve 
one ounce of boric acid crystals in a quart of water. Apply with 
absorbent cotton night and morning. 

An Easy Way lo Remove Wads. — Take a piece of bichromate of 
potash the size of a small hickory-nut, crumble and place in a two- 
ounce bottle. Fill with water, and with a bit of cotton on the end of 
a toothpick apply every day to the warts. 

A Simple Cure for Eczema. — The cosmetic jelly spoken of fre- 
quently in this chapter is a simple, harmless and effective remedy for 
eczema. The recipe is: Thirty grains of gum tragacanth, seven 
ounces of rose water, one ounce of glycerine, one ounce of alcohol, 
one teaspoonful of pure borax. Combine the tragacanth and the 
rose water, let stand for three or four days, add the glycerine, then 
the alcohol, then borax. Perfume with a suggestion of oil of rose. 
However, if the trouble is very severe, you should consult a physician 
at once. It does not pay to let things like that continue. 

Cancers, Tumors and Acne. — The X-ray, which cures cancerous 
growths and tumors, will do away finally and completely with a bad, 
persistent case of acne. Two treatments a week are necessary, and 
the eruptions will absolutely disappear. It is essential that the 
beauty patient should turn over a few leaves in her book of daily 
living. Certain digestion-irritating foods should be avoided, and 
plenty of water should be taken into the system each day. The 
quick bath every morning with cold salt water, a scrubby bath brush 
that takes hold as if it meant it and a speedy drying with a coarse 
towel will stimulate the glands all over the body. At night bathe 



3°4 



PRACTICAL RECIPES 



the face with warm water and pure casdle soap, using a complexion 
brush to keep the skin clean and healthy. Afterward apply an oint- 
ment made of one drachm of precipitated sulphur and lanolin. 

THE CARE OF THE EYES 

If you would have good eyes and eyesight you must take good 
care of them, for like all delicate parts they require constant and 
careful attention. When you arise in the morning don't be surprised 
if you see black spots for a minute or two. The pressure on the 
eyeball flattens the lens of the eye and causes this. Don't rub your 
eyes with your fingers; bathe them at once in moderately cold 
water and wipe them inwards. This prevents "crows' -feet." Don't 
let soap get into the eyes. If the eyes are inflamed an application of 
hot water and milk in equal parts will help greatly. Dry with a soft 
linen cloth. You must not wear a veil, or read in bed. Don't try to 
read by a flickering light, or in the twilight. Don't sew or read 
facing a light. Rest the eyes occasionally and be careful to avoid 
straining them. The very moment the eyeballs ache work should be 
suspended. This is imperative if you would save yourself untold 
trouble in the future. 

To Those Who Wear Glasses. — It is a good idea to have your eyes 
examined by a good specialist once in a while. There may have 
been some changes in the sight, and the glasses which were all right 
when received are not suited to the changed conditions. 

Dark Rings under the Eyes and How to Remove Them. — Dark rings 
under the eyes show that the body, in one way or another, is being 
overtaxed by worry, or that the physical system is deranged. Lack 
of rest, late hours, or an irregularity of the kidneys will cause those 
gray, heavy lines. Drink plenty of water every day; get out of doors 
regularly, look after the diet and get to bed early. Every night 
apply Orange Flower Skin Food to the face. It will help the com- 
plexion generally. 

Frowning, and How It May Be Cured. — There are usually two reasons 
for the frowning habit — bad eyesight or an easily irritated mentality. 
Unpleasant thoughts that go flitting through one's mind leave a track 
behind, and before one knows it cause a great deal of worry. Use 
Orange Flower Skin Food rubbing it in well every night after the face 




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GLORY OF THE COMING WOMAN. 

"The crown of woman's glory is her hair," — trite and true, indeed! 
This young girl has been richly endowed with this necessary feature of 
a beautiful woman. She will be much interested in the instructions 
given of " How to Care for the Hair." 



TOILET RECIPES 30$ 

has been bathed with warm water, white castile soap and a com- 
plexion brush. The food will build up depleted tissue and will put 
new life generally into the complexion. Every morning dash on cold 
salt water. This will not only wash away sleep and give you a fine 
color, but it will make you smile instead of frown. 

Lotion for Weak, Tired or Inflamed Eyes. — Fifteen drops of spirits of 
camphor, one teaspoonful of powdered boric acid, two-thirds of a cup 
of boiling water. Strain through muslin, cool, and apply twice a 
day. 

Eyelashes — How to Help Growth. — Touch the lashes with a little 
castor or olive oil every night on retiring. 

Eyebrows — Care of Same. — These should be brushed with a small 
stiff, firm brush daily, which will cleanse and invigorate them. Don't 
pencil your eyebrows. This soon makes them fall out. To increase 
the growth use cocoanut or olive oil. To darken them use sage tea, 
with a few drops of alcohol. 

CARE OF THE MOUTH 

How to Cure a Bad Breath. — An offensive breath is a real misfor- 
tune, and one against which you should begin a crusade without 
delay. Have your teeth looked over by a dentist, for a slight cavity 
might cause all the trouble. Keep the digestion in first-class condi- 
tion. Use this mouth wash: Salol, thirty-seven grains; alcohol, 
eight ounces; solution of cochineal, two drachms; oil of rose, four 
drops; oil of peppermint, seven drops. Dissolve the salol in the 
alcohol, add the remaining ingredients, and filter. A few drops to 
half a glass of water. 

Tooth Paste. — A pleasant tooth paste is made as follows: Seven 
ounces of precipitated chalk, seven ounces of powdered castile soap, 
two and one-half ounces of powdered orris, one-half drachm of oil of 
peppermint, one-fourth drachm of oil of cinnamon, glycerine suffi- 
cient to form a paste. 

Tooth Powder. — Precipitated chalk, four ounces; pulverized borax, 
two ounces; powdered myrrh, one ounce; pulverized orris, one 
ounce. Mix and sift through fine bolting cloth. 

How to Keep the Gums Healthy. — A very simple way to keep the 
gums healthy is to rub them daily with lemon juice. 



3 o6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 



HOW TO CARE FOR THE HAIR 



The fact that a woman has pretty hair goes far toward balancing 
any other defects she may have. Her "crown of glory," if it is full 
and brilliant, will mark her at once and make her good to look upon. 
The care of the hair is very simple, but if you would have a beautiful, 
luxuriant head of hair it must be taken care of regularly and system- 
atical!)'. Nature itself will do more in a short space of time, if given 
the proper assistance, than all the so-called hair restorers can ever 
accomplish. If you wish to have nice, long, fluffy tresses you will 
have but to follow the instructions given in this chapter 

In starting out it is assumed that our readers are not expert hair 
dressers, but mainly women in their homes who can neither find time 
nor bear the expense of patronizing a reliable hair-dressing estab- 
lishment. 

Massaging the Scalp. — In the ordinary care of the hair the first thing 
to be attended to is massaging the scalp. The reader will distinctly 
understand that this does not mean massaging the hair. There is no 
occasion for tangling up your lovely silken locks when you are only 
massaging the scalp. To do this massaging all that you require is 
your hands. Run your fingers carefully along your scalp and then 
rub them back and forth for about half an inch, being careful when 
you have massaged that particular part to withdraw your hands to 
work upon another place. Massaging is simply rubbing the scalp all 
over with the tips of your fingers. Be careful not to scratch with 
your nails. 

Washing the Hair. — The washing of the hair depends entirely upon 
the constitution of the individual, for example: 

i. For the one who is stout and who perspires easily the most 
careful attention to the hair is required. She should wash her scalp 
at least once a week according to the directions to be found at the 
end of this chapter, and should do it as soon after being in a per- 
spiration as possible. 

2. The thin girl should wash her hair not oftener than every two 
weeks, unless during that time she has been in a great perspiration. 
In that event it should be washed as soon afterward as possible. 

3. The medium lady should wash her hair on an average every ten 
days, certainly not less than every two weeks, the time to be deter- 



TOILET RECIPES 307 

mined by the nature of her employment. To make hair grow and 
keep it in a healthy state it should be washed as often as we have 
mentioned. 

Proper Kind of Soap for the Hair. — It is given out as an absolute 
fact that women buy soap according to the perfume it gives out; or 
the color and attractiveness of the paper in which it is wrapped. It 
is reported that one of the salesladies in a large store kept track of 
the kind of soap sold to men and women for one month. Nine out 
of every ten women looked at the soap in fancy wrappers, took it 
and smelt it and bought it without any question; while nine out of 
ten men asked for a pure vegetable and oil soap without any refer- 
ence to the odor or fancy wrapper. It must be claimed that in this 
instance the men showed their common sense. A piece of good, pure 
vegetable and oil soap, with or without any odor, is what should be 
used by everyone. 

Combing the Hair. — In combing the hair use a good coarse comb, 
taking care that all of the teeth are smooth and firm, so that they 
will not tear or split the hair. Never use a fine-comb. It irritates 
the scalp, injures the roots and causes dandruff. 

Use of the Curling-Iron. — As to the curling-iron it has ruined many 
beautiful heads of hair. If the iron is used carefully and at the 
proper heat the hair is not injured, but if the iron is too hot it burns 
the life out of the hair and its brilliancy is gone. If the curling-iron 
is too hot stop using it or wrap soft paper around it. This is an old- 
fashioned custom, but by doing this one is pretty sure not to suffer 
from burning the hair. 

Brushing the Hair. — As to brushing the hair this is usually overdone 
by ninety-nine out of every hundred women. The hair, of course, 
should be brushed, but a dozen or two strokes each night will remove 
the dust that has collected during the day and clean out any 
dandruff that may have been thrown off by the scalp. Brush the 
hair firmly and gently, but not violently. 

Dandruff. — A healthy scalp throws off continually a certain amount 
of dandruff. It is simply a natural separation of the scales or outer 
skin and the dirt or dust that has collected on the scalp. When the 
pores of the scalp are in a perfectly healthy condition they throw off 
a certain amount of matter, which, because it is held on the scalp by 
the hair, settles into little scales or flakes. This is commonly known 



3 o8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

as dandruff. No matter how many times the scalp is washed it still 
collects. 

For the cure of excessive dandruff the following directions are 
given: Shampoo the hair once a week with six or seven eggs and 
plenty of hot water. Rinse well, dry the scalp quickly and follow 
with a vigorous massage with the finger tips. Every night apply this 
tonic: Forty-eight grains of resorcin, one-fourth ounce of glycerine, 
diluted alcohol to fill a two-ounce bottle. Put on with a medicine 
dropper and rub in well. Never remove dandruff with a fine-comb. 
The process irritates the scalp and aggravates the trouble. 

Dead Hair. — When you start to massage your scalp you need not 
be surprised if on combing it you take out what you consider to be 
good hair. As a matter of fact these are dead hairs, and in removing 
them you add so much more life to the hair that is left. This process 
is like the pruning of dead branches from trees in order to give 
strength to the living parts. If the roots of the hair are alive new 
hair will take the place of the dead which has been removed by 
massaging the scalp. 

The ends of the hair should be watched carefully. When they 
commence to split and roughen they should be twisted into little rolls 
and the ends singed. This will have the effect of bringing all to an 
even length, besides making the hair more healthy. 

How to Wash the Hair. — Begin by using warm water and pure vege- 
table soap. Rub the soap on the hands until you have a good lather, 
then rub this into the scalp. Do not rub the soap on the scalp. 
After washing the scalp thoroughly rinse it off first with warm and 
then with cold water. Follow this with both warm and cold water 
applications. These are the most valuable tonics that have ever been 
discovered for the hair and scalp. In making these applications use 
water as hot and as cold as you can stand it, for this invigorates the 
hair and accelerates the circulation of the blood around the scalp. 
In some hair-dressing parlors this is done by soaking a towel in hot 
or cold water and laying it on the head.. This process prevents 
getting all the hair saturated. If after washing the hair you find a 
white sticky substance clinging to the teeth of the comb it should be 
washed over again until every suggestion of matter is removed. Dry 
the hair with warm towels. After you have dried it then is the time 
to give it a thorough massaging. If the hair becomes too dry a very 



TOILET RECIPES 309 

little olive oil should be used. But the writer wishes it distinctly 
understood that except in very rare cases, like the above, oil should 
never be used on the hair. When drying the hair do so in the sun if 
possible. Never begin combing the hair until it is almost dry. 
Blonde hair should be washed with the yolk of an egg. This will 
help to maintain its golden tints. Mix the egg with a pinch of borax 
and a pint of warm water. 

Hair Dyes. — Unfortunately some women try to cheat old Father 
Time by coloring their hair. This is a very dangerous practice. 
Wholesome food, exercise and proper care of the scalp will do 
more to keep away gray hair than all the lotions that ever were 
made. 

If you would keep your hair right you must keep yourself right, 
both mentally and physically. Unhappiness, sorrow, or some other 
severe harrowing shock can be told almost immediately by the hair. 
It has lost its luster. If the body is kept strong the hair will take 
care of itself. 

Dressing Ihe Hair. — Nearly all women should dress their hair differ- 
ently, and dress becomingly, irrespective of style. It is a fact that to 
nearly all women the plainer their mode of hair-dressing the more 
becoming it is. This does not mean that you are to comb your hair 
straight back and roll it in one lump; comb it back if you desire, but 
have the coil smooth and graceful. It is bad for the hair to be tightly 
pulled back, or to be closely arranged. The scalp requires ventila- 
tion. This should be remembered whenever arranging the hair. 
The one thing to remember is that the lines of proportion of the face 
should be the guide, and the hair dressed in such a way as to lessen 
and not exaggerate these lines of proportion. Watch your defects 
and remember that what is becoming to one woman may be dismally 
inappropriate for you. For instance, if one has a heavy chin, a few 
little puffs and a fluffy fringe left lying out over the ears will add 
grace and lighten the heaviness of the lower part of the face. A 
woman with a sharp chin should arrange her hair close to the sides 
of her head with a coil on top. Watch the paper for every new 
fashion. Get before a looking-glass and try it on yourself. It may 
be just what you have long been waiting for. Sometimes you can 
adopt only a part of that style, but do not be afraid to do so if it is 
becoming. 



310 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Egg Shampoo for the Hair. — If you rinse your hair well after the egg 
shampoo there will be absolutely no odor adhering to the silky 
strands. Soap is not necessary at all; the eggs will make a fine, 
lively suds. Use seven or eight eggs — even more if the hair is heavy. 
Fill a wash-bowl with very hot water. Hold the head over the bowl 
and rub in part of the eggs; scrub and rinse thoroughly. Use the 
rest of the eggs, dig your fingers into the scalp vigorously and con- 
tinue until you feel perfectly clean. Finish with a bath-spray rinsing. 
It is the only way. 

For Teachers Who Get Chalk Dust in the Hair. — Chalk dust, to which 
all teachers are subjected more or less, is extremely trying to even 
the healthiest hair. It dries the oily secretions of the scalp and grad- 
ually deadens the growth. The remedy is in applying something to 
take the place of the oil. Try this tonic, applying with a medicine 
dropper every night and rubbing in with the finger tips: Forty-eight 
grains of resorcin, one-fourth ounce of glycerine, diluted alcohol to 
fill a two-ounce bottle. 

Another Hair Tonic. — A simple and very effective hair tonic is made 
by combining one-half drachm of bisulphate of quinine, one-half 
ounce of salt, three-fourths of an ounce of borax and one pint of 
water. A suggestion of perfume will make you like it better. Apply 
every night with a soft sponge. 

HANDS AND THEIR CARE 

There are few minor things more unpleasant, either for the 
sufferer or for the casual observer, than ill-kept, red and roughened 
hands. Skin that easily chaps requires oil, and so do nails that split 
and crack. The best sort of soap for such skin is that which contains 
the most oil, the best sort of treatment for such nails is to rub them 
well with a cold cream mixture after washing them at night. Very 
hot or cold water is bad for the skin. It is also a poor policy to sur- 
prise your hands by putting them first into hot water and then into 
cold, or vice versa. A little powdered borax added to the water will 
soften it and have a beneficial effect. Corn-meal is also a simple but 
good addition to the toilet table, and should be used as a preventive 
and as a cure for chapped hands. Use a fine soap and tepid water in 
washing the hands, and before rinsing off the soap rub them well 
with the meal; rinse them with tepid water, using a little meal each 



TOILET RECIPES 31, 

time except the last. Dry the skin thoroughly and then rinse it 
again in a little water containing a teaspoonful of pure glycerine. 
The word pure is important in this connection, since impure glycerine 
is anything but healing. Pure glycerine rubbed on the hands is quite 
lacking in odor. Glycerine, by the way, should never be applied to 
the skin undiluted. It has a strong affinity for water, and will absorb 
all the moisture from the surface which it touches unless it has been 
first mixed with an equal bulk of water. Rose water, lemon juice 
and glycerine make an excellent combination for softening and pre- 
serving the skin. 

How to Clean Hands after Dirty Work. — Before blacking the stove it 
is well to "lard" the finger-nails, both around and under, then draw 
on an old pair of gloves. Make an emulsion of powdered borax and 
white castile soap, melted in a small quantity of water, and into this 
stir a little kerosene. After doing a dirty piece of work use this 
emulsion when washing the hands, and then rinse them with vinegar. 
The soap and kerosene open the pores and let the dirt out easily, 
and the vinegar closes them and coats them over, thus preventing 
them from becoming chapped and roughened. The lard prevents 
the nails from becoming stained, and also helps to prevent hang-nails. 

How to Make a'SimpIe Toilet Cream. — Here is a very simple toilet 
cream to be used at night. It consists of glycerine and bay rum in 
equal parts, to which is added as much tincture of benzoin as it will 
take without curdling. This is easily made and not expensive, and it 
does not soil the bedding, while it does keep the hands in good con- 
dition. If one cannot use glycerine, which irritates some hands, 
strained honey may be substituted; but only a small quantity of this 
should be prepared at a time, for it does not keep well. 

How to Take Stains from the Hands.— Lemon and salt will remove 
stains from the hands. 

Cracked Hands Healed with Copal Varnish. — Men and women troubled 
with cracked hands, particularly in the winter, often find it very hard 
to heal the cracks. Common copal varnish will heal them completely 
in two or three days, and a small bottleful will last for a long time. 

Glycerine for the Hands. — To preserve' the smoothness and softness 
of the hands keep a small bottle of glycerine near the place where you 
habitually wash them, and whenever you have finished washing, and 
before wiping them, put one or two drops of the glycerine on the wet 



3 u PRACTICAL RECIPES 

palm and rub the hands thoroughly with it as if it were soap, then 
dry lightly with a towel. Household work and bad weather will not 
prevent your skin from being smooth and soft if this plan of using 
glycerine is followed. 

How to Reduce Fat Hands. — Long, slender hands are very pretty, but 
when you happen to have chubby, fat ones, there's not much to be 
done in the way of a reform. Delsarte may accomplish something 
by making the muscles firm. Stretch the fingers to the limit; then 
with muscular force close the hands slowly. Do this many times, 
night and morning. 

To Keep the Finger-nails Nice. — One does not have to be particularly 
talented to be able to keep one's finger-nails all nice and shiny-like. 
Every morning when bathing the hands use warm water, castile soap 
and a good brush. After drying, lift up the cuticle about the nails 
with an orange-wood stick, cleansing the nails, and fluffing away 
hang-nails. File, if necessary, touch the nails with vaseline, and then 
polish with a chamois-skin buffer and nail powder. Vaseline is better 
than red nail paste. Never use scissors for trimming the nails or 
cutting the cuticle. 

Cosmetic Jelly Good for Hands. — Cosmetic jelly is just as delightful 
when used as a facial application as it is to keep one's hands in prime 
condition. The recipe is as follows: Seven ounces of rosewater, 
thirty grains of gum tragacanth, one ounce of alcohol, one ounce of 
glycerine. Let the tragacanth stand in the rosewater for four days, 
beating often with a wooden spoon. When the gum has entirely 
dissolved, add the glycerine, then the alcohol. A few drops of oil of 
rose and half a teaspoonful of powdered borax are improvements. 
This lotion dries immediately after application. 

To Stop Nail Biting. — When the impulse to nibble your finger tips 
seizes you, at once prepare a bath of hot water and a bar of soap. 
The bath will soothe the sensitive nerves of the hands. 

Lotion for Chapped Hands. — Chapped hands are usually caused by 
hard water, impure soaps and exposure to our irritating winds. ' 
When bathing, soften the water with a teaspoonful of this lotion: 
Four ounces of alcohol, one-half ounce of ammonia and one drachm 
of oil of lavender. Use pure white castile soap, getting the real 
imported kind. Rinse all the soap away and dry well. Then apply 
cosmetic jelly. 



TOILET RECIPES ^3 

CARE OF THE FEET 

No one can be perfectly happy if the feet pain or are sore. 
Neither men nor women should ever be conscious of the fact that 
they have feet, and constant attention is necessary to preserve or 
keep them in a healthy condition. Of course, the first consideration 
is the kind of shoes to wear. These should not only be perfect in fit, 
but easy and comfortable. Shoes are an expensive item in a woman's 
wardrobe, but it is better to economize in some other direction and 
have a well-made, properly-formed boot. 

To keep the feet in prime condition, clean hose should be worn 
each day, and the shoes changed as frequently as time, money and 
circumstances will permit. The heavy shoes worn for walking should 
be taken off as soon as the house is entered. If it is necessary for a 
man or woman to wear heavy shoes the greater part of the time, then 
two, or even three, pairs should be owned. In this way the feet are 
kept from becoming tired. 

After the daily bath, and it is an excellent thing to have this 
warm, as far as the feet are concerned, it is well to rub into the skin 
of the foot a small quantity of carbolated vaseline. This should be 
rubbed in hard, and particular attention paid to the callous spots and 
to the toe joints. When there are hard, calloused spots these should 
be rubbed away with a bit of pumice stone. This may be easily done 
when they are softened by the warm water. Nothing is better for 
enlarged or inflamed joints than to paint them daily with iodine. In 
a short time they will become normal and natural. Weekly attention 
should also be given to the nails. These should never be permitted 
to extend beyond the length of the toe. 

THE FORM AND HOW TO PERFECT IT 

Physical Culture and Delsarte. — A regular course of physical culture 
is a good thing for any woman, whether she be thin or fat. To any 
woman who would have a round, supple waist, small hips and a fine 
bust, there is nothing better than a thorough course of Delsarte and 
deep breathing methods. 

Form Development. — The figure can be developed by any healthy 
woman who will use her lungs. Plenty of women follow the canary- 
bird method of breathing. That isn't the way. Let the good fresh 
air trickle through all the lung cells, and wander around for a while. 



3 i 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Breathing exercises night and morning count for something, of 
course, but to have a high, fine, firm chest and nice, round figure one 
should breathe correctly all the time. Hold the chest up, chin in, 
have the hips back and the hands at the waist. Then breathe deeply, 
inhaling and exhaling very slowly. 

To develop the form also massage every night with a mixture of 
one-half ounce of cocoa butter and two ounces of lanolin. Next 
morning take a cold salt water bath, and then rub well with alcohol. 

Walking and Its Effects. — When walking one should hold the chest 
up, the chin in and the hips back. When lifting the feet don't show the 
soles of your boots. It is a question whether or not walking develops 
the hips. At all events if you enjoy long walks take them by all 
means. For there is nothing like crisp winds to bring contentment 
of the heart and a feeling of charity for one's fellow beings. Walking 
in the open air certainly helps one's digestion, and any human mortal 
with a good digestion has no excuse for being either irritable or 
unkind. 

How to Increase Your Weight. — Plenty of women are cross and fussy 
Because they don't get enough to eat, or take enough time in which 
to eat it. To these we suggest regular doses of olive oil, which is 
very fattening. Take a dessert spoonful of the oil just before each 
meal, adding a wine glassful of grape juice or Burgundy. A raw egg 
taken at night is also a good flesh producer. Break the egg in a 
large spoon, add a dash of pepper, salt and lemon juice, and take it. 

RULES FOR THE REDUCTION OF FLESH 

Food to Eat. — Avoid all starchy and sweetened food, all cereals ; 
vegetables containing sugar or starch, such as peas, beans, corn, 
potatoes, etc. Have your bread toasted; sprinkle it with salt instead 
of butter. Milk, we regret to say, if it be pure and good, is fattening. 
Hot water is an excellent substitute for other liquids. Add a little of 
the juice of limes or lemons to it if you choose. Limit your sleeping 
hours to seven at the outside. No naps. You must take exercise. 

Exercise to Take. — If you cannot walk at least five miles a clay, and 
do not wheel, go to one of the institutions where mechanical massage 
is given. The system is thoroughly wholesome and not expensive. 
In reducing flesh the one fact to recollect is that fat is carbon — 
oxygen destroys or burns out carbon. You must consume the carbon 



TOILET RECIPES 3'5 

by the oxygen you take through your lungs. The more exercise the 
more oxygen and consequent destruction of fat by the one healthful 
method of curing obesity. The more starch and sugar you eat the 
more carbon there is to burn away. 

To Reduce Hips and Abdomen.— A simple exercise which will do away 
with about two inches of hip measurement every month is this: 
Place the heels together, chest up, chin in, hips back. Take a long 
breath and bring the hands above the head slowly, then down to the 
floor without bending the knees. 

Another exercise which is excellent for reducing the size of an 
extra large abdomen is this: Place the hands on the hips, filling the 
lungs completely, and exhaling slowly. While exhaling, twist the 
body at the waist line, first to the right and then to the left. Get out 
of doors all you can and take long walks. 

The Double Chin and How to Reduce It. — Treatment for double chin: 
Anoint with Orange Flower Skin Food, and, picking up the flesh 
between the thumb and the first finger, roll firmly. This dissolves 
the tiny fat cells. Afterward give long, even strokes with the 
flattened palms from the chin up to the ears. Bathe with cold -alt 
water twice a day. 

SUGGESTIONS ON PERSONAL HYGIENE 

Cucumber Peelings, boiled in water, will be found good for the skin. 
A slice of cucumber may be rubbed on the face instead of soap. 
Lemon juice will remove sunburn. Dill water is as good for the 
complexion as rose water, though it makes the skin paler. 

Eiderf lower Water is famous for its cooling properties, as is lavender 
water. 

Never Go Out in Blustery Weather without a Veil, unless you wish a 
tanned skin or freckles. 

Do Not Forget, When Drying the Face after washing, to rub upward 
toward the nose. This will prevent wrinkles, and will help to smooth 
out to a great extent the creases alongside the nose. 

Use Neither Hot Nor Cold Water Exclusively for bathing. A good rule 
to follow is a hot bath at night and a cold one in the morning; but 
be sure to take a bath daily if you wish to keep your skin in good 
condition. 

Shoes and Gloves.— Do not wear tight shoes if you desire a graceful 



316 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

carriage; no woman can walk comfortably or well in shoes that are 
too small for her feet. Do not wear too small gloves. 

Avoid Tight Lacing and any form of dressing which compresses any 
organ of the body. 

To Bleach and Soften the Skin. — A little diluted lemon juice rubbed 
on the face, neck or hands at bedtime will both bleach and soften 
the skin. 

Advice to Coffee Drinkers. — A physician advises patients who are 
affected by coffee to give it up gradually and not all at once. He 
asserts that the cream in the coffee is often the source of trouble, 
and recommends hot or condensed milk to be used in the coffee 
instead. 

The Use of Vaseline by Women. — Vaseline is not a desirable adjunct 
of the toilet table. It will make hair grow on one's face where it 
shouldn't, and it won't make hair grow on one's head where it should. 
Some of the cheaper cold creams are compounded of white vaseline, 
and, for that reason, should be religiously avoided. 

A Home-made Bath Cabinet. — A bath cabinet is a fine thing in case 
of illness. It is made with a square frame large enough to enclose a 
grown person when sitting on an ordinary chair. This frame is 
covered with canvas, tightly stretched and closely tacked in place, 
and there are hinges so that it may be folded up when not in use. 
The top also is covered with the canvas, through which a hole is cut 
to allow the head to project. When children are put into the cabinet 
a footstool on the chair raises them to the proper height. A little oil 
stove is placed in the cabinet and lighted, and a teakettle full of 
water boiling upon it soon induces a perspiration equal to that pro- 
duced by the finest Turkish bath that was ever given. This is 
followed by an alcohol rub, or a sponge bath of cool water and salt, 
or other treatment, to meet the case. Be careful to keep the head 
cool by means of cold applications while in the cabinet. There is 
nothing more restful after a hard day's work than a three-minute 
sweat in this cabinet, followed by a cool sponge bath and a brisk rub 
with a coarse towel. 

Soft Water and the Bath. — If you read carefully the history of 
famous beauties who won scepters and swayed kingdoms by the 
power of their physical perfections, you will see that the beauty of 
the body can be increased by means of the bath. In these days of 



TOILET RECIPES 317 

bathing one of the important things to know is that hard water is 
fatal to the beauty and smoothness of the skin or complexion. 

The beauties who are careful of their complexions avoid hard 
water as they would a pestilence. They use powdered borax in their 
bath, even with rain water, and if there is any doubt about obtaining 
it they carry it with them. In sleeping cars they use it, and in their 
daily bath they consider it a necessity. The Romans believed in 
using oils, and after the rain water bath they added all kinds of 
essence and perfumes to impart a beauty to the skin and a fragrant 
charm to the body. They also believed in massaging and rubbing 
after their bath, and they used cocoanut oil when the skin had the 
least tendency to dryness or irritation. Many recommend salt baths 
when anyone is weak or ailing, and easily fatigued. The time of 
bathing should be considered, also the point not to take a bath soon 
after eating. To break the latter rule of health interferes with the 
digestion by causing the blood to leave the internal organs. Just 
before retiring at night is the best time for a warm bath, and the 
early morning for a cold bath. Bathing, properly conducted, is a 
beautifier, and borax is excellent; being a purifier, it cools the blood 
and allays irritation of the skin. 

Uses of the Lemon in the Toilet. — A lemon is one of the most useful 
adjuncts to the toilet. It is especially helpful in removing stains 
from the skin. When the juice of a lemon has been used in the 
kitchen the "husk" of the fruit, in which a little pulp and juice will 
remain, should be reserved for the wash-stand. It is useful in its fresh 
form for rubbing over the hands and cleaning the flesh that sur- 
rounds the nails; or can be steeped in boiling water. When cold, this 
water should be used for bathing the face. If the "husk" of the 
lemon is dipped in borax before being rubbed over the hands so 
much the better. A mixture of lemon juice and borax is recom- 
mended for whitening the skin. 



CHAPTER XIII 
THE FARM 

Hygienic Points — Keeping Accounts — Fencing and Care of Machinery — 
Wood, Water and Ice — Pumping and Irrigation — How to Fertilize the 
Farm — Electricity as a Stimulant — Rotation of Crops — The Grass 
Crop — Hay Making and Measuring — Corn — Building Silos — Smutty 
Grain — Bird and Insect Pests, etc. 

False economy is the bane of some farmers. To save a dollar or 
a fraction thereof they pay little attention to hygiene, allow their 
harness to go unoiled, and their farming implements and vehicles 
unpainted, work with old, dull or out-of-date tools, buy cheap goods 
of all kinds and overwork themselves, family and stock. They let 
the old fence "do" another year and never grade up the stock or 
fowls. Result: Harness wears out in half the time that the well- 
kept harness does, and the same may be said of implements and 
vehicles. A neighbor does twice the amount of work with half the 
exertion with his improved tools and systematic account-keeping, 
while his children attend school and his wife rests. The cheap 
goods of the false economist wear out soon and never look well, his 
stock retrogrades and becomes unsalable, and he never "knows 
where he stands." He is like the man who jumped the fence to save 
the wear on the gate hinges, and broke his leg jumping. In order to 
prosper in these days the farmer, like all other producers, must be 
up-to-date and especially keep in close touch with the rest of the 
world. 

KEEPING ACCOUNTS 

Every farmer, no matter how small his business, should keep 
some account thereof, that he may know how he stands with man- 
kind, as well as whether he is farming at a profit or a loss. Many 
imagine that because they do not understand bookkeeping it is out 
of their power to do this. That is a very mistaken idea, however, as 
anyone who can write, though possessing but a smattering of figures, 



THE FARM 319 

can successfully do so as follows: Procure a good-sized blank book 
with substantial covers, that will hold the accounts for years; also a 
small pocket note-book. At the top of left-hand page, in larger 
book, write in bold letters: "Amount spent in 1900." At top of 
page opposite write: "Amount sold in 1900." At least once per day 
set down in this book every cent spent, as well as every cent coming 
in from sales, stating what for; as, mending wagon, $1.25; shoeing 
horse, 75 cents; eight dozen eggs, $1; twenty bushels potatoes, $10, 
etc. No names or dates are absolutely necessary. At end of month 
add up each page, when you can tell at a glance whether the farm is 
paying or not. 

Now for the small pocket note-book. If doing a regular business 
with a firm, say Smith & Son, place their name at the top of two 
pages, a left-hand page and a right-hand page. Before the name on 
the left, place the word "owing." After the name on the right, place 
the words "owing me." Now, remember, everything set down in 
both books on a left-hand page represents money that has left you, 
while every item set down on a right-hand page is money that flows 
the right way so far as you are concerned. Very good. Now 
our pages will read: "Owing Smith & Son," and "Smith & Son 
Oiving me." This book represents your day-book and ledger com- 
bined. Everything bought of Smith & Son on credit should be set 
down on the left with date, as Jan. 2, shoes, $2.50; Feb. 11, 100 pounds 
sugar, $5.60; while each item sold to Smith & Son, on time, should be 
set on the right-hand page opposite, as Jan. 18, 41 bushels wheat, at 
70 cents, $28.70; March 12, 16 pounds butter, $4, etc. No cash 
transactions should be set in this book. By these simple methods 
any person of ordinary intelligence can successfully keep his accounts 
so that he will know at any time the exact condition of his farming 
as a financial enterprise. 

In many farmers' families growing boys or girls would take 
delight in keeping such records, and would thus prove not only a 
help to their parents but would be taught business methods them- 
selves. 

TELEPHONE LINES FOR FARMERS 

By such means as the telephone, good roads, country trolley lines, 
or something else, we must seek to break the necessary isolation and 



320 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

sometimes monotony of farm life. The cheapest and easiest gotten 
of these is the first named — the telephone. Of course the telephone 
cannot transport one bodily into the home of a neighbor, but it can 
at least enable him to enter it for conversational purposes and return 
in the twinkling of an eye. A very good instrument may now be 
gotten for $12. Line costs about $30 per mile if cedar poles are 
used, and if oak poles are substituted for cedar it may, in most 
sections, be built still cheaper. 

"In this section there are two farmers' party lines," writes M. L. 
Carr, of Avon, Illinois. "The termini of both lines are towns, and 
regular message rates are fixed for those outsiders who wish to 
transact business over the wire. On one line there are thirteen 
'phones, and on the other fourteen. 

"The writer recently has been experimenting with barb wire on 
the fences as a means of telephonic communication. A line two 
miles in length works successfully, and I have every reason to 
believe that a much longer one would work equally well. Wet 
weather affects the working of such a line somewhat, but not enough 
to make it impossible to carry on conversation. The wire was 
allowed to remain just as we found it, excepting that we stapled it 
again if it was loose, and bridged over splices with No. 12 plain wire. 
The ordinary splice in barb wire is not a very good joint, electrically, 
and to make it such a short piece of wire was wrapped tightly around 
each side of the splice. Where it was necessary to cross roads, or 
pass over gates, poles were planted on each side and No. 12 wire 
strung on them and brought down to the fence wire on each side. 
This furnishes a very cheap form of line, and a very satisfactory one, 
too, in dry weather. 

"The man who never has used a telephone cannot see what use 
he could possibly make of it excepting, perhaps, in case of sickness. 
One of the many uses to which it is put here is to get a daily market 
report. At 12 o'clock the farmer subscriber knows the day's receipts 
at the Chicago stockyards and the condition of the market for that 
day. This is only one of the many uses to which it is put." 

FURNISH THE HIRED MEN WITH GOOD FARM READING 

"I went out last fall to a farm near this city to work for a farmer 
who had several hired men," says a friend. "In the evening two or 



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Courtesy of the Breeder's Gazette 

CORN-PLANT ABOVE AND BELOW GROUND. 

The above illustration shows the way in which the corn-plant 
is anchored in the soil and secures its nourishment from it. It 
indicates its appearance twenty-one days after planting, the surface 
roots being largely the food roots, and the deep roots affording 
anchorage. 




Courtesy of the Breeder's Gazette 

ROOT DEVELOPMENT OF MATURE CORN-PLANT. 

This picture shows the appearance of the roots of the mature 
plant and explains how deep cultivation of the soil is a cause of 
much injury to the growing crops. The roots are cut off, and 
experiments at the Illinois Station have proven that the yield is 
thereby materially decreased. Shallow and frequent cultivation 
is recommended. 



THE FARM 3*1 

three of them, after eating supper, would go to town to a dance or 
theater. They returned usually about one or two o'clock in the 
morning, and the result was that none of them were fit for a good 
day's work. I wondered why it was that they left every evening and 
cared more for sport than quiet hours at their rooms. I learned that 
the farmer by whom they were employed had no papers in his home, 
no magazines, or other reading matter. As a rule anybody who can 
read will read. For this reason there ought to be several good 
papers and good books in the farm home. The hired men will be 
enlightened and mentally improved even by the occasional reading 
of good farm literature, and the price paid for it will in this way be 
repaid to the farm owner. Subscribe for a class of good farm papers, 
and the hired men will stay at home evenings and you will get your 
money's worth a dozen times over before the year is out." 

FARM HYGIENE AND COMMON DIRT 

We are very scientific in these days and talk of bacteria, bacilli, 
micrococcus, pasteurizing, sterilizing, etc., and there is danger that 
we shall forget that scientific dirt is just as bad as the common 
variety. Dirt under a Latin name is just as dirty as it is in English, 
and requires just as much soap and hot water, scrubbing-brush and 
elbow grease, as the old variety that our fathers used to wrestle with 
before the days of washing powders and concentrated lye. 

We need no special sterilizers or pasteurizers to keep the milk 
cans clean; leave all these complicated machines to the scientific 
fellows and go at the cans and dairy vessels in the old-fashioned way 
as if bacteria and bacilli had never been heard of; use plenty of 
water, soda, sunshine and fresh air. Have your milk vessels clean 
first and think of the bacteria afterward. If your butter or cream 
are off-flavor, nine times out of ten the trouble is that your stable, 
cow or dairy is dirty — has just plain dirt that doesn't need a micro- 
scope and a chemist to find; only a thorough cleaning and the 
trouble will vanish. The tenth time you may need the help of the 
expert, but don't ask for it till you have got rid of the common dirt; 
then you may look for the scientific variety. 

Keep Your Cistern Clean. — A great many diseases with which people 
on the farm become afflicted have their origin in the cistern. "I have 



in PRACTICAL RECIPES 

demonstrated this to my own satisfaction a number of times," 
declares a careful farmer. "Nothing is more detrimental to good 
health than impure, foul water that is teeming with microbes of every 
tribe imaginable. And how do these microbes get into the cisterns? 
They breed in the water and multiply at a very rapid rate if the 
cisterns are not cleaned out at least once a year. I clean out ours 
every fall, and you would be surprised to see the amount of trash, 
leaves, etc., that comes up from the bottom. And I remember once 
getting out a big rat that was very offensive. We had been drinking 
water contaminated by a rotten rat! Health to me is vastly more 
than wealth, and while we are very busy and engaged in money- 
getting we take time to purge our drinking water. That must be 
pure and wholesome else trouble begins." 

Handy Filler for Farm Use. — A convenient filter which may be made 
by anyone will be of value in purifying water for cattle drinking in 
times of drouth. Take a large sized cask and perforate the bottom 
with a number of gimlet holes. Put over the bottom first a layer of 
clean pebbles, next well washed sand, then a layer of coarsely 
pounded charcoal and over all this a piece of canvas. Water which 
is quite muddy may be poured into this filter, and, draining through it 
into a tank prepared for the purpose, will be good for cattle drinking 
even though it is not quite clear. 

FARM FENCING 

To a considerable extent, poor fences are an index of a poor, 
slovenly farmer, while good fences betoken thrift and enterprise. 
The strength of a fence built to restrain stock is only the strength of 
its weakest part. Whatever fences are needed should be strong and 
well built throughout. 

On this account in a majority of cases it will be found a good plan 
to go over them carefully and repair wherever necessary. Usually in 
early spring, when there are days during which the soil is too wet to 
plow or cultivate, a good work may be done in putting the fences in 
thorough repair, so that throughout the season the stock may be 
considered safe. When the fences are not in good repair there is 
not only to be considered the loss of what the stock will eat and 
destroy, but the risk to the stock themselves, and this latter is often 
no inconsiderable item. If animals occasionally break through weak 



THE FARM 323 

places in the fence they very soon acquire the habit of trying to find 
those weak spots. 

On many farms there is too much fencing. It is built in a way 
that takes up entirely too much land. Generally fence rows not only 
grow weeds to seed the rest of the farm, but they afford a harboring 
place during the winter for insect pests and vermin that injure the 
growing crops. There are few farms where some fencing is not 
necessary, but in many cases a little care in planning the farm would 
dispense with a considerable amount. 

On very many of our farms, particularly in the East, there are far 
too many rods of fence. Instead of having large fields there are 
many instances where land is cut up into two or four or five acre 
fields. To fence these small fields costs too much to make it a profit- 
able investment. Not only the first cost is great, but the annual 
repairs are quite a tax. "I have adopted the plan of having just as 
few fences as possible," writes a New York farmer. "Years ago on 
my farm there were many rods of worn rail fence. This took up so 
much land and so much brush grew in the corners that it was torn 
down and rebuilt in a straight line by using posts and cleats. I have 
also built considerable board fence, wire fence, stump fence and a 
combination of pickets and wire. The stump fence, with stones 
nicely piled in between the stumps, makes a very substantial fence 
and one that will turn any kind of stock, and on the whole is the 
most satisfactory kind on my farm. The combined wire and picket 
fence comes next. This latter we build with a machine where it is to 
stand, and the pickets are split out of chestnut, oak, ash or similar 
durable material when we are cutting up our wood pile. This is a 
fence that occupies but little room, looks well and stops anything 
from a pig to a horse. 

"I have no barbed wire fence on the farm and do not want any. 
In building wire fence I use the plain twisted wire, and find it 
effectual in stopping both cattle and sheep. Board fences are too 
expensive, and when wire can be bought at present prices no farmer 
can afford to build them. 

"Again, do not allow brush and weeds to grow along the fences. 
They look far from neat, and besides afford a harbor for wood- 
chucks, rabbits and other pestiferous animals, much to the detriment 
of the crops." 



3 2 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

CARE OF FARM MACHINERY 

The cost of the machinery that goes to waste by standing out of 
doors from one year to another would more than build sheds to cover 
all the machinery in the country. Why is it that so many seemingly 
well-to-do farmers will get a new machine and use it the first year 
and then drive in a fence corner or under the nearest tree, unhitch 
and leave it there until it is needed again, when they would little 
think of taking money and laying it down that way, although the 
machine cost the money just the same? When this machine is 
wanted next year the paint is all off, the woodwork is sun-cracked 
and twisted out of shape, and beginning to rot where bolts are 
through it, the iron work is rusty and the whole machine is out of 
order. Such machinery is ruined more by the abuse and neglect it 
receives than by the work it does; and the free use of oil when using 
machiner" is of much more importance than a great many people 
think. 

Petrolatum for Farm Tools, Machinery, etc. — Petrolatum is a by-product 
gained in refining petroleum or coal oil. It is put on the market 
under hundreds of different names, such as cosmoline, petroleum, 
vaseline, etc. It can be bought in all quantities from a drachm to a 
barrel; the larger quantity you buy the cheaper you get it. It is 
indestructible; throw it in the fire and you can collect it in the ashes 
when cool. It never becomes rancid under any temperature. Grease 
your agricultural tools with it when you put them away and you will 
find them just as bright as when you applied the petrolatum, even if 
they are stored for twenty years. It never dries nor becomes hard to 
remove. "I keep a box in the house for family use," writes Hugo 
Faust, of Marshall, Illinois, "and one for the horse stable, cow stable, 
calf house and hay press. There is nothing like it as an ointment for 
chapped hands and lips. When the cow's teats become lacerated or 
chapped from cold apply cosmoline; if a horse has an abrasion apply 
vaseline; if you want to drive a nail in a hard piece of wood dip the 
point of it in petroleum jelly; if you want to send home a screw put 
cosmoline on the threads and you can always take out the screw. 
How much trouble we sometimes have in the threads rusting on a 
bolt that we want to remove. Use a little petroleum. You can 
protect all tools, such as saw, square, chisels, bits, augers, knives and 



THE FARM 3^5 

forks by coating them with cosmoline. As a base for other oint- 
ments, such as lead, zinc, iodine, iodoform, henbane, belladonna, etc., 
it is good, and being neutral never becomes rancid. Keep out dirt, 
however. There is nothing better for lubricating bearings on mower 
or binder; makes an excellent wagon and buggy grease, and, last but 
not least, for scalds and burns, galls under the armpits, and between 
pedals in summer there is nothing finer. I might go on and enumer- 
ate a thousand places where it can be used to advantage. 

"Take crude petroleum, which is sometimes sold as lubricating oil, 
and any cheap mineral paint that you can get for about four cents a 
pound, and make a mixture. Apply this by means of a brush of some 
kind to the parts of the tools which it is desired to protect. This will 
keep them perfectly free from rust, and they may be used the next 
spring without going to the trouble of scraping off the mixture with 
a brick or metal scraper of. some kind. If tools are used shortly 
after the mixture is applied of course it should be applied again 
before they are put away.'" 

WOOD, WATER AND ICE 

Various matters connected with the clearing of land, the making 
of charcoal and the best means of preserving wood used in fence 
posts, rails, vineyards and in the farm buildings themselves are 
treated under this heading. We also speak of a labor-saving method 
of pumping water and of irrigation conducted on a moderate scale. 
The ice question always interests the farmer, and the suggestions on 
this point, as on the other matters, are offered in the interest of 
practical economy and convenience. 

On Preserving Fence Posts, Rails, etc. — Every farmer living in wooded 
sections, or where rail and post fences are constructed and main- 
tained, would welcome a practical and inexpensive means of preserv- 
ing the wood and thus prolonging the usefulness of timbers exposed 
to the weather. Fence posts, rails, vineyard stakes and building 
timber, if exposed, decay in a few years, and it becomes necessary to 
replace them. Two methods have been practiced, having in view 
the preservation of the wood, but neither is satisfactory. One is to 
burn the end of the post that is to go into the ground until a rather 
thick coat of charcoal is formed. This takes out the sap or moisture 
and makes the surface less susceptible to the dampness of the 



326 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ground. The other method consists in dipping the ground end of 
the posts in kerosene until thoroughly saturated therewith. 

Prof. J. C. Blair, of the Illinois Agricultural College, is conducting 
an experiment with regard to this matter and gratifying results are 
eagerly anticipated. White pine and poplar stakes, used on the 
experiment farm, are being treated, and the process is as follows: 
The wood is first heated and not treated in any way. Then the first 
set of eight stakes are boiled for fifteen minutes in one of the pre- 
serving solutions and allowed to cool. This is repeated and they are 
allowed to cool once more. The wood is next heated to the charring 
point, so that all moisture is driven out and the stakes are given two 
coats of white lead paint. 

The second set go through the same operation, but are painted 
with barium sulphate paint. In each case the sets consist of white 
pine and poplar. This makes two pine and two poplar stakes boiled 
in the same solution and painted with white lead, and the same 
number painted with the barium sulphate paint. Thus at this step 
of the experiment it is possible to have duplicate pine stakes boiled 
in kerosene and treated with the paint mentioned, and four poplar 
stakes prepared under the same conditions. After these stakes have 
weathered for several years the comparative value of the prepara- 
tion can be determined. 

Farmers use millions of stakes every year, and the saving would 
be great if they could discover some combination which would make 
one stake last as long as two did formerly. The solution could also 
be applied to posts, rails and any other woods exposed to the 
weather. 

Wood for Repairs. — "I find it a good practice to prepare some timber 
during winter for repairs on wagons, plows and other tools," writes 
Godfrey Winkler, of Southwest City, Missouri. "Only the toughest 
of ash, hickory and white oak should be used. I like to hew it out 
for the different uses and then store it in some dry, sheltered place to 
thoroughly season. Thus we have timber adapted for an emergency 
when plow-beams or other woodwork on our implements break, and 
it will save time in going to town in the busy time of spring or 
summer when work is rushing." 

Killing Stumps and Hedge Fences. — The best time to cut timber so 
that the stumps will die quickest is in August. With large trees the 



THE FARM 327 

time of cutting makes very little difference, as the stumps will have 
to be blasted out or removed with a stump-puller. 

About the only way to kill a hedge fence is to cut the hedge close 
to the ground, pile the brush over the stumps and burn. Then by 
means of stump pullers pull out all the roots possible and cultivate 
the ground, using a timber plow. Whenever roots are brought to the 
surface cut them underneath the ground, and go over the land 
frequently, keeping down the sprouts as they appear. 

To Make Charcoal. — Cut wood into four-foot lengths; stand on end 
around light material and wood until there is a cord or two. Cover 
with leaves or straw and with an outside shell of dirt. Make draught 
places around the bottom. Leave a hole at the top, and down this 
drop live coals. When the fire is well burning within cover the hole 
at the top. Be careful to keep all holes, except at the bottom, 
closed till the wood is well charred, then uncover and pile to one side. 

Corn-cobs burned in the same way are almost a necessity in [the 
poultry yard or pig pen. Wherever pigs or chickens are kept the 
spring bonfires of brush and litter should be used to make charcoal 
by smothering the fire, and the remains saved for the runs or pens, 
or in the absence of live stock, for the garden beds. 

Home-made Wind Engine as a Pump. — "Every farmer knows how 
tedious it is to pump water by hand. I was a member of that class 
until a year ago," writes C. D. Lyon, of Leonidas, Michigan, "when 
an idea struck me that I would convert some of the loose material in 
the way of pieces of machinery lying about the premises into a wind 
engine. I had an old Deering binder that had seen its best days; 
from it I took the reel head, to which I attached with bolts five pieces 
1 by 2 inches and four feet long of seasoned oak. These arms were 
strengthened by five oak braces a foot from the center of the wheel. 
Slats a half inch thick, three inches wide and three feet long were 
nailed to these braces, all having the same slant. A hoop was put 
around the wheel and the same thoroughly braced with one-fourth 
inch rods, making it very rigid. The binder also furnished a bevel 
gear, shafting, bolts, rods, etc. A large vane was made by which the 
mill could be thrown in or out of gear at pleasure, and by arranging 
different sizes of well pipe I made a standard so the mill could turn 
with the wind. I placed the mill on top of one of the farm buildings, 
using an 8 by 8 for derrick, running from the second floor through the 



328 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

roof. I then attached the main shaft (three-fourths inch) to another 
bevel gear, and to this the pump was attached. The mill has been in 
use now for about a year. I have a four-barrel tank and it is never 
empty. I can also connect with corn-sheller, emery wheel and turning 
lathe. I am proud of the mill and it shows what a man can do if he 
tries." 

Irrigation should be recognized as an agricultural art of very wide 
applicability and value. Its association with the idea of desert 
reclamation has blinded the public mind to its value for regions 
where the need of reclamation does not exist. Irrigation is simply a 
means of soil improvement. No one questions the wisdom of the 
saving and storing of manures, or the wisdom of generous outlay for 
commercial fertilizers when required. The same is true of soil 
improvement by means of drainage. There should be a similar 
feeling in regard to irrigation, and the United States Agricultural 
Department is urging this fact upon farmers. 

The most diligent culture and the most generous fertilization are 
often made of no avail, and actual loss is sometimes incurred because 
the farmer has not prepared himself to supply water when needed. 
The water, which he could often provide for a mere fraction of his 
expenditure for fertilizers, often for less annual cost than the interest 
on his investment in under-drainage, he has neglected to have ready 
for use, and he sees the hope of return for his year's labor and 
expenditure fade away during a few weeks of drouth. There have 
been cases where water has been stored at a considerable expense as 
a protection against fire in barns and has remained unused while 
some valuable crop was burning up in the garden. Such losses are 
largely due to two things: First, the notion that irrigation is of 
importance only in arid regions, and second, ignorance of the ease 
and cheapness with which a farm water supply can be stored and 
distributed. 

Irrigation, moreover, is not merely a recourse to insure the safety 
of a crop. It has been demonstrated beyond question, both by prac- 
tical experience and by systematic experiment, that growth and pro- 
duction can be profitably pushed by irrigation even when the natural 
moisture seems ample, and in this respect irrigation aligns itself with 
fertilization and cultivation as a factor in intensive culture. 

Another error grows out of the large scale upon which irrigation 



THE FARM 3*9 

is generally known to be carried on, involving canals and ditches too 
expensive for individual undertaking, but small irrigation works 
usually require neither greater skill, labor nor outlay than other farm 
improvements which are readily undertaken. They do not require 
as exact engineering as under-drainage by tiling, and the whole 
system, both for development and storage of water, often costs much 
less per acre of the area irrigated than does tiling. The work is more 
readily comparable to the construction of open drains, coupled in 
some cases with reservoir building, which is no more difficult than 
cellar construction, and is accomplished with a similar outfit of teams, 
plows and scrapers. The man of ordinary skill in handling these 
tools, who can turn a straight furrow, or build a straight piece of 
fence, and can do these things well, needs only a suggestion of the 
feasibility of securing a home water supply for irrigation, providing 
his conditions are favorable. 

Ice-houses for the Farm. — An ice-house on a farm does not cost much, 
and is of great value and service to the household. An easy way to 
build one is to make simply a bin of rough boards, sixteen feet 
square and roofed over. There should be a window in each gable, so 
that ventilation shall be good and the moisture rising from the ice be 
carried out by the wind. Put a layer of sawdust on the ground, 
about a foot thick, and then stack the ice snugly in the center, 
eighteen or twenty inches from the walls. Fill in between the ice 
and the walls with sawdust and cover the ice on top with that mate- 
rial to about the same depth. Simple as this plan is, it will keep the 
ice quite as well as many a more expensive double-walled ice-house. 

In this line a correspondent writes: "No expensive structure is 
needed for an ice-house, though when it is an object to have no 
wasting away it should be made tighter than where this does not 
matter so much. Slabs from the sawmill do very nicely for the roof, 
and the sides may also be of rough boards. Where desired the ice- 
house may be one corner of the woodshed partitioned off, in which 
ice will keep quite as well as in a more costly structure. Even 
stacking is often resorted to by laying down rails for a floor, on which 
to stack the blocks compactly. Cover heavily with some material 
which is non-conducting, such as straw, hay, etc., finishing the top so 
as to shed rain, bracing the sides with boards and rails to keep 
covering in position. Care must be taken in getting at the ice, 



33 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

always to open at the same place and cover up thoroughly, or some 
hot day will turn it to water. In putting in the ice, no matter where 
it may be, always surround it with non-conducting material like 
sawdust." 

The ice-house question can be summed up as follows: Any cheap 
structure with good drainage and no circulation below, good venti- 
lation above, proper space between ice and sides, filled with non- 
conducting material, will serve the purpose. The bugbear of expense 
need deter no one from storing ice. By providing a proper bottom 
ice can be piled on it and a building put over it later. 

NO IDLE LAND 

Land never should be allowed to lie idle. As an idle mind breeds 
mischief, so an idle plot of land breeds pests in various forms. It is 
not necessary that the land be planted to something with the expec- 
tation of reaping a matured crop. For instance, wheat, oats, barley, 
rye, besides making excellent pasturage, may be turned under and 
made an excellent fertilizer. Land that is intended for spring 
planting should have a winter crop on it. The sun and elements are 
not as injurious to land with a growing crop, summer or winter, as to 
the bare, unprotected soil. It does not wash or bake nearly so badly. 
After the wheat, oats, etc., are harvested break soil and plant imme- 
diately to something — peas, for instance, even if it is intended to sow 
to fall wheat, and the peas never mature — at all events you have a 
fine crop of pea vine hay, and the fertilizing value of the roots. It is 
much cheaper to grow fertilizer than to buy it. 

HOW TO FERTILIZE THE FARM 

The word "fertilizer" has a wide definition, because it really 
includes everything that adds to the fertility of the soil. Fertilizers 
may be divided into two classes — direct and indirect — or nutritive 
and stimulant. Direct, or nutritive fertilizers furnish the elements of 
plant food needed to give sustenance and vigor to the growing crops. 
In other words, they hold the same relation to plants that bread and 
meat bear to man. This class of fertilizers is of the greatest impor- 
tance, and, therefore, deserves special consideration at the hands of 
farmers. 

Direct, or Nutritive Fertilizers. — When we speak of nourishment for the 



THE FARM 331 

plant we refer to those elements of plant food which must be supplied 
to them by man. The value of these elements has been so thoroughly 
established, and is so well known, that to speak about them is very 
much like telling an old story. The elements are nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid and potash, and upon their proper use depends to a large 
extent the success or failure of the farmer's crops. These three 
elements of plant food can be furnished on the market in various 
forms. Nitrogen, for example, can be procured in the shape of 
nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, fish scrap, tankage 
and cotton seed meal. At the same time it can be supplied to the 
soil still more economically by the cultivation of a legume, like clover 
or peas, which crops possess the peculiar and distinct property of 
absorbing nitrogen from the atmosphere and transferring it to the 
soil. 

The forms in which phosphoric acid is most commonly placed on 
the market are acid phosphate, dissolved bone, bone meal and bone 
black. The chief point to be borne in mind in supplying phosphoric 
acid is to present it to the plant in an available form, the source from 
which it is derived being rather of secondary importance. 

Potash is supplied through the medium of potash salts, the most 
common of which are sulphate of potash, muriate of potash, mag- 
nesia and kainit. All of these forms contain potash in an available 
condition. 

It might be well to mention the fact that the best way to use the 
three forms of plant food referred to is to apply the phosphoric acid 
and potash together some weeks before planting time, and the 
nitrogenous matter, in case green manure is not resorted to, as top 
dressing after the seed is sown. The two first mentioned elements 
will then have had time to pass into solution. 

Humus and How to Supply It. — All fertile virgin soils contain humus, 
that is, decayed vegetable matter, in large amounts. Some soils, such 
as swampy or peaty, contain this substance in excess, but as a rule no 
well-drained cultivated soil contains too much humus. 

All kind of vegetable matter will by its decay in the soil form 
humus. But soft, succulent matter, like the stems of clover, vetches 
and cow-peas, decay sooner and more quickly form humus than 
woody twigs or the hard culms of rye and other grasses. When a 
soil becomes poor in humus the best way to restore it is to plow 



332 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

under a crop of clover, vetch or cow-peas grown upon the land itself. 
Stable manure will also restore the humus if used in large quantities, 
but as a rule this will cost more than the green crop. In many 
localities stable manure cannot be had at any price in sufficient 
quantities. Rye, rape, mustard and other non-leguminous crops are 
often plowed under to improve worn soil. These will furnish humus, 
but for the purpose they are far inferior to the leguminous plants, 
and only the latter should be used for this purpose. Besides the 
humus they furnish, legumes supply the soil with nitrogen taken from 
the atmosphere. Rye, rape and other non-leguminous plants do 
not. 

One ton of the following named plants dried into ordinary hay 
furnishes to the soil, when plowed under, the following amounts of 
nitrogen: Red clover, 40.5 pounds, equivalent to 250 pounds nitrate 
of soda; crimson clover, 41 pounds, equivalent to 260 pounds nitrate 
of soda; alfalfa, 43.8 pounds, equivalent to 270 pounds nitrate of soda; 
cow-peas, 38 pounds, equivalent to 230 pounds nitrate of soda. 

In order to secure a good growth of any legume on a worn soil we 
must supply the soil with abundance of soluble potash, phosphoric 
acid and lime. A good fertilizer for any of the above crops is 
muriate of potash, 200 pounds; superphosphate, 300 pounds per acre. 
If the land lacks lime apply 500 to 1,000 pounds. 

Advantages of Green Manuring. — There is one advantage in green 
manuring that is often lost sight of, and that is the improved 
mechanical condition secured. The soil is made more porous, easier 
mellowed and more open to the action of sun and air. To this may 
be added the increased supply of vegetable matter, or humus, in 
the soil. 

Clover is one of the best crops, if not the best, that can be grown 
for green manuring. Yet many of our farmers are following the plan 
of allowing the second growth to fall down and mulch the soil during 
the fall and winter, plowing under in the spring. Field peas, rye, 
buckwheat are all good crops to grow for this purpose. When land 
has been cropped down so badly that it will not give a crop of clover, 
rye or buckwheat may be sown, and after a fair growth is obtained it 
may be turned under and then clover be sown. It is not best to 
depend upon green manuring alone to build up the fertility, but it is 
a help and a valuable one. All of the manure possible should also 



THE FARM 333 

be saved and applied. This should in fact be the first step, yet every 
farmer has had the experience that on the average farm it is hardly 
possible to secure a sufficient quantity of manure to maintain, much 
less build up the soil. 

Stable Manure is perhaps the most important of natural manures, 
and possesses some excellent fertilizing qualities. It contains plant 
food in a readily available form, and at the same time furnishes a 
great deal of organic matter which greatly improves the physical 
condition of the soil. Stable manure will, of course, vary according 
to the character of the animals from which it is obtained, and the 
nature of the food which is fed to them. All stable manure contains 
potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, but there is an excessive 
amount of nitrogen as compared with the other two ingredients. 
This excess manifests itself by creating a heavy growth of foliage or 
woody matter at the expense of grain or fruit. 

Farmers who have depended on stable manure exclusively for 
their fertilizers will no doubt have noticed this fact. The addition of 
a comparatively small amount of potash and phosphoric acid will 
greatly enhance the value of stable manure. About 150 pounds of 
kainit and the same amount of acid phosphate to the acre in addition 
to the manure as ordinarily applied would be sufficient. These mate- 
rials can be used to best advantage if mixed with the manure itself, 
and will then not only furnish two needed elements of plant food but 
will also prevent the escape of ammonia from the manure, which 
always takes place when the latter becomes heated. 

Cotton Seed Meal is another natural fertilizer, and is largely used. 
It is easy to handle and contains plant food in an available condition, 
but there is the same drawback as with the stable manure. Cotton 
seed meal contains about seven percent, of nitrogen, three per cent, 
phosphoric acid and about one and one-half per cent, of potash. The 
amount of nitrogen is entirely out of all proportion to the other two 
ingredients; hence phosphoric acid and potash should be added to 
the meal, so that the plants fertilized may not run entirely to foliage 
or wood, which would be the result were meal alone used. 

Wood Ashes should contain, on an average, about five per cent, 
potash and a trifle of phosphoric acid; hence where ashes are used 
for fertilizing, both phosphoric acid and nitrogen should be added in 
order to furnish enough of the three elements of plant food. Wood 



334 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ashes, however, are rather uncertain in composition and high in price, 
therefore, not always an economical fertilizer. 

Bone Meal is rich in phosphoric acid and contains some nitrogen, 
although it is entirely deficient in potash. If one part of muriate of 
potash be added to three parts of bone meal the combination will be 
found excellent for fruits and vegetables of all kinds. From 600 to 
800 pounds per acre of the mixture would be considered a fair appli- 
cation. 

Using Old Bones as Fertilizers. — The question how best to dispose of 
old bones that not infrequently accumulate around the farm is not 
always easy of solution. Every intelligent tiller of the soil is aware 
that this usually waste material has great intrinsic value, but how 
successfully to utilize it is not so readily determined. Where one 
happens to live near a bone mill or fertilizer factory it is probably as 
well to have the bones ground and use them in the form of meal or 
exchange them for superphosphate. 

With most farmers this is impractical, and so the alternative is 
simply to work them up at home or let them go to waste. Fortu- 
nately there are several well-tried and successful methods, involving 
no special skill, which under intelligent direction any ordinary farm 
hand can carry out, by which this valuable but inaccessible store of 
food can be opened up for the use of growing plants. In order to do 
this he must decompose the bones. This may be done in several 
ways. Perhaps the simplest, most effective and most economical way 
is as follows: 

Place the bones in a wooden tank or hogshead, packing them with 
unleached wood ashes. Supply enough water to keep both bones 
and ashes thoroughly moistened, and in several months the bones 
will be so softened that they may be pulverized by merely shoveling 
them over and sifting them. With the bones and ashes both on the 
farm the farmer may with this simple method, and with no outlay of 
money, produce a considerable quantity of the very best fertilizer for 
some lines of vegetables. 

Where one wishes to hasten the process he can use caustic lime 
instead of the wood ashes. This method means the outlay of some 
money, and the caustic lime is not easily obtainable in remote places. 

A third method is to use caustic potash instead of the ashes. 
Like lime, this costs something. If the caustic potash be dissolved 



THE FARM 335 

and heated and poured while hot over the bones at the rate of one 
part of potash by weight to four parts of bone, it will decompose the 
bone so that it will be ready to use in several weeks. 

If the farmer has several wagon-loads of bone on his farm, the 
result of the accumulation of a year or more, he may not be able to 
handle it in wooden vessels. In that case he can dig a trench in 
compact soil and put the bones in it to be treated with the ashes, the 
caustic lime or the caustic potash. The wood ashes will make nearly 
as valuable a compost with the bone as either of the other two sub- 
stances named. The farmer can take time to use the ashes. 
Knowing when he wishes to use the fertilizer he can begin three 
months before that time to use the ash method. For example, if he 
wishes to use a bone compost in May he can collect the bones until 
December, and in that month he can begin preparation. In April he 
will have the bones decayed so that he can pulverize them thor- 
oughly, and in May they will be in proper shape to apply to the soil. 

Stimulant, or Indirect Fertilizers, are those which do not furnish any 
actual plant food, but make available by their action the nourishment 
previously existing in the soil. The principal stimulant fertilizers 
used in agriculture are plaster, lime and salt. 

Farmers sometimes get into the habit of making applications of 
these stimulant fertilizers simply because they get good results for 
the first year or two after using them. The truth of the matter is 
that the continued use of stimulant fertilizers will cause the soil to 
become exhausted of its natural supply of plant food, and the] yields 
will in time show a proportionate falling off. 

Lime as an indirect fertilizer corrects the acidity of the soil when 
a soil is so rich in decaying organic matter as to show a distinctly 
acid reaction, but this is not a fertilizing effect. We all know that 
lime compacts a loose, sandy soil, and loosens a too compact clayey 
soil, but these are all purely physical functions, and have little to do 
with plant food. It is claimed that soils rich in organic matter and 
acid are beyond the reach of nutrifying bacteria, and that lime by 
correcting this acid condition enables the bacteria to act on the 
organic matter, thus liberating any fertilizer ingredients in a 
measure; but it is a very delicate matter to adjust the exact condition 
of "slight alkalinity" by rough applications of lime. 

But lime deserves more credit than this one point. It undoubt- 



336 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

edly aids materially in breaking up soil particles, thus liberating 
potash locked up in the soil, which otherwise would not be available 
for plant food. It is an expensive form of potash plant food, how- 
ever, as a ton of lime by the time it reaches the soil would cost not 
less than $4, and this sum would buy ten times the quantity of potash 
the lime could possibly liberate. It is not generally claimed that 
lime has any great effect in making available the phosphoric acid 
existing naturally in soils. For twenty years phosphoric acid has 
been generally applied in excessive quantities, as compared with 
potash, yet this phosphate quickly becomes dormant in the soil, and 
is very slowly acted upon by plants. 

Land Plaster is merely lime combined with sulphuric acid. Any 
value it may have as an indirect fertilizer is due to the fact that it 
decomposes soil particles, liberating the stores of plant food existing 
in soils in a state of nature. For example, insoluble silicate of potash 
with land plaster may form silicate of lime and sulphate of potash, 
which brings the potash within reach of plants. Soil phosphates 
cannot, however, be similarly decomposed by plaster; hence it can be 
of little value as an indirect source of phosphoric acid plant food. It 
is said that land plaster prevents loss of nitrogen when mixed with 
decaying organic matter. This undoubtedly is true, but it is of little 
value as a maker of plant food. It can only hold nitrogen as 
ammonia, which requires further treatment at the hands of decom- 
posing bacteria before becoming fit for plant food. 

Common Salt is credited, in a lesser degree, with all the virtues 
of land plaster. 

HOW COLD AND FROST IMPROVE THE SOIL 

We may be inclined to complain about the bitter cold which we 
are obliged to endure in winter, but with this weather must come 
many benefits impossible without it. The man whose soil is somewhat 
inclined to pack down and become hard and impervious to water, 
which causes it to dry out by evaporation instead of filtration and 
then plow up lumpy in the spring, should look upon a five-foot 
freeze as one of his blessings; the frost rends apart the particles of 
soil and makes it friable as deep as it has been frozen, allowing the 
water to filter through and get deep into the subsoil. There it will 
be held against the dry time of the summer, when the crop will ge'c 



The farm 337 

it, because the surface tension of the soil is improved and capillary 
attraction draws the moisture up from below, for the use of the 
growing crops. 

The mere improvement in the condition of the soil as regards 
moisture is not the only good that comes from a hard freeze. The 
soil is pulverized by the frost, as it never could be by the use of 
implements, and this makes it possible for the feeder roots of the 
crops to find their food in every part of the soil. Freezing unlocks 
the stored fertility of the soil as no other agency can. The whole 
surface of the earth is heaved up by the expansion of the water in 
the soil when it freezes, and after the thaws come it settles back loose 
and friable, ready to yield up its store of plant food and produce 
larger crops than before. 

Of all men the farmer has least cause to complain of the cold that 
first locks the earth in iron bands and then leaves it better prepared 
for his use. 

ELECTRICITY AS A CROP STIMULANT 

Marvelous'things have been done by the help of electricity and 
more wonders are being developed every day. A few years ago 
experiments in France indicated that the application of the electric 
current to the roots of growing plants would cause a more vigorous 
growth. Later, Prof. Lemstrom, of the University of Helsingfors, 
tried some experiments which seem to justify high hopes for this new 
system of fertilization. 

In these experiments wheat, rye, barley, oats, white beets, red 
beets, potatoes, radishes, carrots, parsnips, onions, celery, beans, 
peas, strawberries, raspberries and tobacco were grown in equal areas 
in two fields, one of which was under ordinary cultivation, while the 
other was periodically charged with electricity. The results of the 
electro-culture of the farm produce are most interesting. The yield 
of tobacco was increased by the electrical treatment of the plants 
forty per cent.; and the photographs of the two fields — the "experi- 
mental" and the "control" lots — only 164 hours after the current was 
turned on show a wide difference of growth, the augmentation being 
markedly in favor of the "control" lot. Professor Lemstrom found 
that a good supply of water was absolutely necessary for the tobacco 
plants, that very small doses of electricty should be given, and none 



33$ PRACTICAL RECIPES 

at all when a hot sun was shining on the plants. Electrified potato 
plants gave, in garden soil, an increase of 76.2 per cent., and in the 
field 24.3 per cent. Red beets gave, in garden soil, 65.3 per cent., and 
in the field 31.7 per cent. It is proved that electricity will, in a high 
degree, accelerate the ripening of fruits, berries and roots, and 
probably develop more sugar in them. In the greenhouse the straw- 
berries under electrical current ripened on an average in thirty days, 
while those not electrified took fifty-four days to ripen. The same 
was noted with raspberries, though the difference of time in their 
case was only seventeen days. 

An analysis made in France shows that the electrified roots have 
fifteen per cent, increase of sugar, and it is noted that the strawberries 
grown in the "control" field were remarkably sweet. The general 
conclusions of the Helsingfors results, which have been in many 
respects confirmed by similar tests in France, are that the discreet 
application of electricity to plants and vegetables acts most bene- 
ficially on their growing and ripening qualities; that the best effects 
can be attained only where there is a sufficient supply of water for the 
plants; that for most plants an application of the current for four 
hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon, avoiding the 
hours of the highest sun, when the sky is clear, is judicious; that 
when the supply of water is abundant the current can be given to 
advantage during the whole twenty-four hours. The surest way, 
however, of producing the best effects is to limit the giving of the 
electricity to a moderate time, so that the vegetative process is not 
forced too fast. These facts are clearly proven. The important 
question is: Can the method be applied to agriculture or gardening? 
Professor Lemstrom says it can, and that the farmer or the gardener 
will increase his yield forty per cent, by it. 

As to cost for effectively electrifying fifty acres $100 will be 
needed the first year for the outfit and upkeep. After that the 
yearly expense will be about $10. Besides this the electrical treat- 
ment will make the soil more productive every year and hasten the 
ripening of the harvest, thus making the farmer's capital more pro- 
ductive. Professor Lemstrom has turned his experience to account 
in the construction of a new machine which greatly facilitates the 
application of the current to farm or garden lands, but he prophesies 
that before long the farmer will get cheap electricity from the 



THE FARM 339 

nearest central station, from which the current will be conducted to 
the surrounding fields for miles. This promises to be the most 
practical way of applying electricity to growing vegetables in the 
future. 

DEEP AND SHALLOW PLOWING 

This is a subject that every farmer should carefully study from his 
own standpoint. Some subsoils are comparatively rich in fertility. 
Then, of course, the soil is fitted for deep plowing, but the plowing 
should be a little deeper each year until the desired depth is obtained. 
Where grass or manure is plowed under, of course it is better to plow 
shallow, unless it might be for a root crop, and of course deeper 
plowing would have to be depended upon in that case; but for a corn 
crop on grass land, top-dressed with manure, shallow plowing — four 
or five inches in depth — will give good results. There is a serious 
objection to shallow plowing, and that is that the deeper the soil is 
prepared the greater the capacity of the soil to take up and retain 
moisture. It has been ascertained that land prepared to the depth 
of ten inches will take up two inches of rainfall. 

ROTATION OF CROPS 

One of the best systems of rotation is that which allows a grass or 
clover sod to be plowed up and planted to corn. But with this, as 
with all other crops, it is very essential that the soil be prepared in a 
good tilth before planting. 

Preparing Sod Land for Corn. — In order to do this to the best 
advantage the sod should be plowed in the spring at the first favor- 
able opportunity. In a majority of cases it may be plowed when 
almost any other kind of land would be too wet. Care must be 
taken to see that the sod is turned completely under, and the sooner 
the plowing is done the better is the opportunity for rotting the sod 
and the less work required to get in a good tilth for planting. 

One of the best implements to use in preparing sod land for corn 
is a disc harrow. It can be run over the ground in the way the 
plowing was done first and then crossed. In a majority of cases this 
will be sufficient, and going over with a good smoothing harrow will 
usually put the land in good condition for planting. Sometimes with 
old, tough sod more work will be necessary in order to fine properly, 



34© PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and when this is the case lapping the disc harrow one-half at each 
working will be sufficient. 

Clover and Timothy. — The increasing necessity of growing clover in 
order to maintain the fertility of the soil is so apparent in the West 
that no argument on this point is necessary. At an Institute held in 
Dixon, 111., Fred Rankin read a paper on clover which brought out 
considerable discussion. Several farmers present remarked that they 
could always get a heavier crop of hay by sowing both timothy and 
clover than by sowing either alone. In other words, both crops 
seemed to grow as well together as either would alone. No one 
present seemed to have given the matter much thought, although all 
agreed that the facts were well known. 

After a little thought the reason for this seems plain. It is that 
the two crops feed on different parts of the soil. The young clover 
plant does not linger in the surface soil. It begins from the day it 
starts into growth to seek its food in the subsoil, going deeper every 
day, and often going six or more feet into the earth. The timothy 
plant has quite a different habit of growth. Its roots are all near the 
surface and feed on the upper four inches of soil, rarely going 
deeper than six inches. Anyone can prove this by going into a 
meadow when the ground is thawing out in the spring, and pulling 
up a plant of each. The clover will come out with a long tap-root, 
while the timothy will show a small bulb, something the shape of an 
onion set, and from this a thin brush of fine roots spread horizontally 
through the upper soil. 

A clover meadow maybe mowed the first year if conditions of soil 
and weather are not unfavorable. It should be sowed as early as it 
is possible to get the ground in order, for clover can stand the heat 
as well as any other plant. Run the mower over the field if the 
weeds get to be six inches high, setting the cutter bar so as to clip off 
their tops. This will give the clover time to get ahead of the weeds, 
and they will trouble no more. 

Clover sown in this way will head out and make a fair crop of hay 
the first season, enough to more than pay the cost of growing, and 
the field may be plowed under the next season or kept for meadow, 
giving a large crop of hay. For a short rotation — making it corn, 
clover and corn again — this is the quickest way to renovate run-down 
land. 



THE FARM 34* 

If clover is grown every two or three years there will be no neces- 
sity, speaking for a large part of the country, for using commercial 
fertilizers to restore fertility, nature having delegated to clover a 
very generous amount of restorative power. In some sections, how- 
ever, fertilizers are wisely used and give very good results. H. F. 
McMahon, a young farmer of Union County, Indiana, has made some 
interesting experiments along this line, and has this to say: 

"Corn fertilizers do not impoverish the soil. They should be used 
in connection with clover and other renovating crops. They are not 
to be used in preference to farm manures, but in connection with 
them, for farm manures are cheaper and better than commercial 
fertilizers. They should be applied with a drill in preference to 
broad casting." He adds that commercial fertilizers very seldom pay 
on sandy or gravelly soils; that they are applied to wheat with the 
best results, but that for corn the farmer should depend on clover 
and proper rotation. 

THE GRASS CROP 

"Grass is the most widely distributed of any kind of vegetation, 
and wherever civilized man is able to live and prosper grass grows. 
Where people are the most prosperous there grass flourishes best." 
To this declaration of C. P. Goodrich, of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, 
we would add that people are most prosperous where grass flourishes 
best, solely because of the fact that permanent prosperity is impos- 
sible in any country where grass of some kind does not flourish. 

Leaving out maize, oats, wheat, barley, rice and all other grain- 
bearing grasses there is no single crop that adds so much to the 
wealth of any meat-eating people as the grasses. Clover, of course, 
is not a grass, but in popular terminology clovers are included in the 
grass crops, meaning the crops which furnish pasturage and hay for 
live stock. The corn crop of this country is valued at something like 
$500,000,000, and the hay crop at perhaps $400,000,000. If we stop to 
consider that by far the largest part of the live stock of this country 
does not eat hay at all for six months of the year and a very large 
part of it not at all during the year, we shall soon understand that 
the hay crop of the country is but the small end of the grass crop. 

Pasturage Grasses. — Of the different varieties of grass usually 
sown for pastures blue grass is rather the best of all if only one kind 



342 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

is required, as it starts up early in the spring and stands tramping 
and grazing rather better than almost any other variety, while if 
not pastured too close it will furnish pasturage until the freezing 
weather in the fall. But it is a slow grass to get well established, and 
on this account should be sown with a mixture of other grasses when 
desired for pasture. 

A mixture of blue grass, orchard grass, red top, timothy, red 
clover, meadow fescue and rye grass is good, and in some cases 
mammoth and white clover and sweet vernal grasses may be added. 
When it is desired to secure pasturage in a short time it is very 
essential to have the soil in a good tilth. When the seed is sown be 
sure to use plenty of it, to get it distributed as evenly as possible 
over the surface, and to sow it as early in the spring as the condition 
of the soil will admit. The only safe plan is to have the necessary 
supply of seed on hand, so that advantage may be taken of the first 
opportunity. Then keep the stock out until the grass plants make a 
fairly good growth, and be careful that the stock do not graze down 
too close. 

"Many farmers do not realize the value of rye, nor avail them- 
selves of its benefits in preventing their fields from wasting fertility 
through winter season, or as pasture in winter and early spring. We 
sow rye for both purposes," writes William T. Wright, of Orange 
County, Indiana, "and find that cows and sheep do well when pastured 
on it. Our cows have doubled the quantity of milk given since being 
turned into the rye field the first of April, when dry feed was very 
scarce, and the cows had lost all relish for it. At first they were per- 
mitted to stay in just a little while at a time, but now they stay on 
green pasture all day, coming up at night to receive their small ration 
of ship-stuff and clover hay, contented and happy. There is no 
reason why every farmer should not have his cows thus blessed. The 
same field may yet be plowed for corn or other crop, or the rye 
harvested and the land left in better condition for crops next year." 

Hay Making. — In making hay it is always best to begin a few days 
before the meadow is quite ready to cut. The loss from cutting a 
week too soon is not to be compared with that arising from cutting a 
week too late. There is a difference between dried grass and hay 
made from matured grass, but if the stock is allowed to choose they 
will take the dried grass. If we do not begin to make hay until it is 



THE FARM 343 

just right, bad weather or other untoward circumstances may cause 
delays that will allow the grass time to get too ripe, and when once 
this happens it is impossible to make good hay of it. Timothy 
cutting should begin by the time the blossoms fall from the heads. 

"We prefer to begin cutting as soon as the dew is off in the morn- 
ing," says an Iowa farmer. "If the weather is fair this is left until the 
next day, when it is raked and allowed to lie in the windrow an hour 
or two, and is then piled into well-built cocks, where it can stand 
until the next day, or two or three days if necessary. In these cocks 
it begins to sweat, and pitching the hay on the wagon and off into the 
mow airs it out in a way that causes it to cure perfectly in the mow, 
coming out a bright green and smelling as sweet as new-mown hay." 

The use of a hay-loader hastens the work of hay making, but is 
not conducive to the making of the best hay, as it can be properly 
cured only by standing in the cock for a time. The average farmer 
cannot afford to use a hay-loader if he wants the best hay for his 
stock. 

Rules for Measuring Hay. — There is more or less demand for rules in 
the measurement of hay that will approximately determine the ton- 
nage in stacks. 

The custom of giving a seven-foot cube, or 343 cubic feet, for a 
ton of hay, which was in use years ago in some localities, has not 
proven satisfactory to buyers, the universal claim being that the 
measurement does not hold out with scale weights. It has more 
recently been suggested that a ton of dry hay should be variously 
estimated from 400 to 500 cubic feet, depending upon the solidity of 
the stack, the quality or kind of hay and its aptitude to pack closely. 

The following rule is given for the measurement of hay in ricks 
or long stacks: Multiply the length in feet by the width in feet, and 
the result by one-half J:he height; divide the product by 300, and the 
result will be in tons. 

To estimate the contents of a round stack multiply the square of 
the distance around the stack (at the bulge) in yards by four times 
the height in yards, and point off two places from the right, this will 
be the number of cubic yards in the stack, which divided by twenty 
will equal the number of tons. 

While these measurements may assist in approximately getting at 
the contents of a stack, there are so many factors besides bulk enter- 



344 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ing into the weight of hay in a stack, there is much more satisfaction 
when it can be placed on the scales, and we urge farmers in every 
case where possible to weigh the hay when selling or buying; in fact 
use the scales in all commercial transactions on the farm. What 
would be thought of a merchant or manufacturer who "lumped" his 
goods when selling? 

The scale is one factor in putting farmers on a commercial footing 
with other tradesmen. When once a pair of scales is put on the farm 
or a platform scale placed in the barn keep it in order, for an incor- 
rect scale is more unsatisfactory than none. 

The Cow-pea as a Southern Hay Producer. — "The southern farmer finds 
after actual experience that the cow-pea is his main plant as a land 
renovator and hay crop. In the North our friends are fast realizing 
that they can safely rely on the cow-pea for this purpose. We find 
the cow-pea a fast growing plant, and two crops can be easily grown 
in one year," writes W. C. Crook, of Henderson County, Tennessee. 
"As it is a warm-weather plant one cannot sow the seed safely until 
after danger of frost. We sow here any time after the 25th of April 
for early sowing, and from the 15th to the 30th of May for late 
sowing. I sow at the rate of one and one-fourth bushels per acre in 
my corn land at time of last cultivation. This I generally harvest 
for seed. 

"The peas don't injure the corn in the least, but on the contrary 
they are a benefit, as they make a rank growth, keeping down weeds 
and preventing land from washing. 

"I sow seed at the rate of one and one-half^bushels per acre after 
wheat harvest. This I mow for hay, which, in my opinion, when cut 
at the proper time and properly, makes the very best of feed. I cut 
the hay when the peas are beginning to ripen. Some growers haul 
and pack the hay in the barn the next day after it is cut, and while 
this may be a good plan where one has a free circulation of air, I 
prefer at least three days' sunshine on my hay before hauling. Some 
writers also recommend sowing two and one-half to three bushels 
per acre. This I believe to be entirely too much. I find two bushels 
a very generous seeding. If one has land too poor to grow corn or 
wheat profitably he can drill cow-peas in rows three feet apart and 
make more than by any other crop, and at the same time greatly 
improve the land. 



THE FARM 345 

"One of my neighbors drilled some peas this way in between corn 
rows. That was on thin land, the rows being five and one-half feet 
apart. He gathered eleven bushels from a peck drilled. Another 
neighbor bought one bushel of seed from us, drilled them in and 
, gathered twenty-four bushels of peas. We sow them in our orchards 
; and find them a profitable crop. We sow the Whippoorwill in 
orchards as it makes less vine than the 'running' kind, which might 
do some damage to your trees. 

"I fence off lots and sow them to cow-peas and turn in pigs, thus 
getting the best of hog feed and at the same time greatly enriching 
the land at comparatively no expense. 

"One of the greatest difficulties attending the growing of cow-peas 
is gathering the seed. This is done by hand and is very slow work. 
There are many kinds of peas that thrive well here, but the Whip- 
poorwill makes less vine and is a great pea. The Black and Clay 
peas are later varieties and make less peas and a rank growth of 
vines. These are the leading varieties, but there are many others 
that do well. 

"We should sow cow-peas for three reasons: They will grow well 
on land too poor to grow clover. They make a larger amount of 
hay, which all stock relish. If the peas are cut when there are many 
peas on the vines they form a very good balanced ration. When fed 
to milch cows the hay will encourage the milk to flow. Good land 
will, produce from three to five tons of pea hay, which sells readily at 
$8 per ton. Good land will yield twenty to thirty-five bushels of peas 
that will sell from fifty cents to $1.50 per bushel." 

CORN AND THE CORN-FIELD 

One lamentable waste which goes on under the very eyes of the 
farmer, and one for which there is no shadow of excuse is that in the 
corn-field. 

In the western and middle states, where thousands of acres of 
corn-stalks are allowed to stand and go back into the earth, or else 
be burned in order to get rid of them, this waste is very great. The 
actual value of the stalk as food is nearly or quite as great as that of 
the grain itself. In the great corn-growing belt it may not be pos- 
sible to utilize fully this part of the plant, but for the farmer whose 
corn-fields do not occupy so extended an area there is not the slight- 



346 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

est excuse for treating this valuable product as it is treated on the 
average farm. 

Corn should be cut before it is fully ripe. This secures the juices 
in the plant, at the same time doing no injury to the grain, which will 
mature after it is in the shock. 

Large shocks of corn are preferable to small ones since the 
surface exposed to the weather is less. Husking should be done as 
early in the season as possible and the fodder secured at once, 
instead of allowing it to stand in the field until midwinter or even 
later, as is sometimes the case. There is very little food value left 
after the bundles have been soaked through and through by rain, and 
completely weather-beaten. F'allen shocks should be righted after a 
wind storm and not allowed to remain lying on the ground. 

Care is necessary in stacking the bundles of corn-stalks or they 
will spoil. The center must be kept full, and not allowed to be on a 
level with the outside of the stack, or it will settle too much; then 
when heavy rains come they beat in and following the course of the 
bundles wet it through. 

Where one depends on stacking corn-fodder it should be put in 
small stacks, these being preferable to large ones. These can be 
drawn inside the barn to better advantage as required without 
leaving any portion exposed to the weather. 

Load for load, good, bright, well-cured corn-fodder is equal to hay 
for feeding stock. What is wasted on the average farm often equals 
the amount actually consumed. 

Seed Corn. — James Riley, of Thorntown, Indiana, is a well-known 
seed man, having originated several varieties. If every farmer would 
take as much pains with his seed corn as Mr. Riley does the increase 
in the crop would pay immensely for all the work done in improving 
the se»ed. In a recent talk before an Institute at South Bend, 
Indiana, he narrated his experience in this line. 

Many years ago Mr. Riley became convinced after carefully 
studying the matter that corn can be improved as much as live stock, 
and by the same methods, — selection, breeding and feeding. He, 
therefore, began twenty years ago to improve seed corn. From a 
variety of white corn he developed the Boone County White. 
Desiring a variety of yellow corn he determined to take an early and 
a late variety, and establish one of his own that should meet his 



THE FARM 347 

wants. He therefore selected a plat separated from any other corn, 
plowed, prepared and marked it off three and a half feet each way 
and planted every other row of Golden Yellow, a very late corn. 
Then he waited four weeks and planted Pride of the North, a very 
early corn, but with too small ears. He cultivated carefully, and as 
soon as the tassels began to appear went through and cut out all of 
the tassels of the Pride of the North as a foundation to establish a 
new variety. He then commenced to improve the variety, and after- 
ward named it Riley's Favorite. By breeding and feeding he kept 
on improving it. Next he selected a half acre of ground far away 
from any other corn to prevent pollen from flying from one field to 
the other; made the ground very fertile, and prepared the plat as 
before, marking both ways with the shovel-plow. Then he planted 
four rows and left one. In about two weeks he planted the remain- 
ing rows. This was to keep up a supply of pollen to completely 
fertilize all the silks on the tips of the first planting. He gave the 
plants the best tillage, and as soon as the tassel began to appear he 
cut out all imperfect and barren stalks. He thus obtained a pedigreed 
variety of corn, which reproduced itself and reduced the practice of 
growing corn to an exact science. 

Mr. Riley always selects the best ears for a special plat like this 
every year, in order to keep on improving the variety he is using. 
Many farmers do not appreciate the importance of having perfect 
seed corn, but select from the crib as they are husking. This is a 
mistake. Few of them get their corn husked before the germ is 
injured by frost. He selects early in order to be sure that it has not 
been damaged in the least. His practice is a most excellent one and 
can safely be followed by his fellow farmers. 

Further directions in regard to obtaining the best seed corn are 
given below: "Select from cribs ears for seed that measure at least 
ten inches long and seven and one-half inches in circumference," 
writes Vernon Allen, of Sycamore, Illinois. "Shell off the corn on 
the butts and tips and use only that on the center of the cob for seed. 
Test your seed by planting one hundred kernels in wet sand. If less 
than ninety-five per cent, grow, discard the seed and select other, for 
it will grow weak corn. In any field of corn all stalks that do not 
bear ears of corn are only weeds. Like produces like in breeding 
corn, just as it does in breeding animals. The pollen falling from 



34 8 • PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the tassels of barren corn-stalks will produce corn-stalks that will be 
barren. Cut out every barren stalk. Fields of corn thus improved 
should be surrounded with at least eight rows of broom-corn, or 
planted one-half mile from fields containing barren stalks to prevent 
cross-fertilization." 

Planting Corn Too Thick is a common mistake among farmers in this 
country. Corn is a great sun plant and needs the sunshine, therefore 
make the rows wide enough to admit the light when full grown. 
Experiments have told us that when planted thick we have smaller 
ears but more of them, and when thin, large ears and fewer of them; 
but we learn by experience also that the better way is not to plant 
thick on any soil as a rule. It will not be so exhaustive to the soil, 
and will give more satisfactory results. It is best for the farmer to 
have only one good variety. If he has more it will get mixed and he 
will soon have no certain variety — white and yellow mixed and none 
of it marketable at the highest prices. 

The Cocklebur— Ridding the Corn-field of It — In traveling over certain 
portions of the corn-belt one is impressed with the undue prominence 
given the cocklebur; its thorny head is seen in hundreds of corn-fields 
above the measly, sickly little corn plants that have spent a summer 
begging for moisture which the bur enjoyed. 

It is argued that no manner of cultivation during the growth of 
the corn crop will keep the burs in check, also that the seed cannot 
be destroyed by deep plowing, or entirely even by burning, and that 
so long as the field is planted to corn the burs will come and cause 
trouble. This is partly true, and yet the bur can be mastered if taken 
in hand early in life; when the seeds begin to germinate and peep 
above the surface, a close harrowing or weeding will turn their tender 
rootlets to the hot sun and thus put them out of the way for all time 
to come. 

Another means by which burs may be successfuly combated is to 
burn them in the fall after they become thoroughly dry; pile them 
with the stalks and when both are dry fire them, care being taken to 
gather all the burs into a pile. 

The easiest and quickest way, however, to rid the fields of them 
is by sowing grass or timothy; the latter will check them the first 
year, and grass or clover and timothy mixed will master them. 
Often this plan has to be resorted to before the farmers may want to 



THE FARM 349 

change the fields from corn. Fields that are cocklebur harbors and 
where the corn is light, should be thoroughly disked in the spring 
and sown to oats; then follow with wheat and grass, timothy and red 
top, or any other hay crop suited to the section. Any plant or fine 
rooted forage crop that ultimately occupies every inch of space in the 
field will drive out cockleburs and keep them out so long as cultiva- 
tion is not given. 

Silos and Ensilage. — "The farmers who can well consider the advi- 
sability of having a silo are those who keep a large number of cattle 
on a given area of land, and who find themselves short of a requisite 
amount of hay, corn-stalks and other roughage," says W. A. Henry. 
"Such farmers are now usually employing a feed-cutter to make closer 
use of the dry forage which they produce. They do not like to cut 
down the number of cattle on hand, and yet do not see how they can 
produce rough feed enough to supply the present number. Many 
such farmers, especially dairymen, are buying considerable quantities 
of grain each year in order to supplant the roughage now raised. 
They do not object to grain buying, but find they cannot produce all 
the roughage they need on their own farms, and further find that it 
is very unsatisfactory to attempt to buy hay or corn-stover (corn- 
stalks) from their neighbors. 

"Such farmers may well consider the advisability of the silo as a 
factor for increasing the output of their farms. They can count on 
the fact that if they build a first-class silo and place more or less of 
their corn crop therein each fall that the loss from the crop so stored 
will be much smaller than if the corn is cut and shocked and fed 
either long or through the feed-cutter. 

"To place a corn crop in the silo in the fall costs from seventy- 
five cents to $1.25 per ton for all of the labor involved in cutting the 
corn by the harvester until it is properly pitted. An acre of Illinois 
or Iowa land produces from twelve to fifteen tons of silage. The 
shrinkage through loss of moisture, actual nutriment, etc., will run 
about fifteen per cent. Good silage contains an abundance of ears, 
and so the cows or other cattle get about all of this form of grain 
they require from the silo. A dairy cow in full flow of milk, or a 
fattening steer during the first stages of fattening should be allowed 
from thirty to forty pounds of silage per day. With such a ration as 
this a cow will not eat over from four to six pounds of hay per day 



350 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

additional. Of course she should have some bran, middlings, oats or 
other protein food to make up the protein requirement. 

"Persons who make use of the silo use the corn harvester for 
gathering the crop the same as if it were to be placed in the shock. 
The green material is hauled at once to the silo, and this leaves the 
field clear for fall plowing or for seeding to winter rye, winter wheat, 
etc. There is no expense for husking the corn, or for shelling, or 
grinding it. The feeding of the stock is greatly simplified in the 
winter time, for the cut silage is rapidly and easily handled by using 
large forks with which it is quickly pitched through the openings of 
the silo into the feed car or wagon, to be hauled to the feeding racks or 
manger. When good corn silage is properly fed there is not a pound 
of the corn-stalks wasted, all being readily eaten by all kinds of 
cattle. There is no other kind of roughage so generally palatable to 
dairy cows as well-made corn silage. In some experiments which 
were conducted at this station cows were allowed six pounds of mixed 
hay and corn silage for roughage. In some cases the cows would not 
eat this small allowance of hay unless extra pains were taken to have 
them do so by sprinkling meal over the cut hay. 

"The writer believes, and the experiences of some of our cat- 
tle men are showing, that silage is very useful for steer feeding, 
especially during the earlier stages. At this time the animal's 
digestive tract needs to be well distended, and this succulent food 
seems admirably suited to the purpose. We all know how successful 
English stockmen are with their combination of roots, meal and hay. 
Now, why should not corn silage, containing, as it does, the succulent 
corn-stalks and the chopped up ears of corn, prove fully as good as 
the Englishman's pulped roots?" 

An acre of corn-stalks plowed under in the spring is said to have 
a fertilizing value of about $5. If those stalks were cut at the proper 
time in the fall and converted into silage they would have a feeding 
value twice as high as their fertilizing value. But a large number of 
farmers neither plow under corn-stalks nor cut them for ensilage, but 
burn them and thus lose $10 per acre. Because this loss is not as 
perceptible as is the burning of a barn or the destruction of a crop 
few farmers know or care anything about it, but it is a leakage that 
must be stopped if farmers are to succeed. 

How lo Build a Silo. — A silo can be built without great expense or 



THE FARM 351 

trouble. One constructed by the Indiana Experiment Station holds 
about sixty-five tons. It is 12 feet in diameter and 28 feet high; 
studs 16 and 12 feet, of 2 * 4 pine, were placed vertically end to end, 
long and short alternating to break joints and 17 inches from center 
to center, on a circular brick foundation two layers deep. No. 1 pine 
fencing 1 * 6 inches x 16 feet was then resawed to make boards 
Y?. x 6 inches * 16 feet, and these dressed to make them lie true. 
These were then nailed around on the inside against the studs, 
forming a circle, two men bending them into place and nailing them 
on. First one layer was nailed up for a space, then tarred paper 
was placed over this layer and this was followed by another layer of 
half-inch stuff, breaking joints with that underneath. Four doors 
were left at convenient intervals, the width between studs, and about 
eighteen inches high. Boards and tarred paper may be laid in these 
doorways, the ends lapping against the studs, as the silo is filled. No 
roof is provided or necessary. 

Such a silo is strong and inexpensive, and will preserve the con- 
tents in good condition. This one cost, without boarding the outside 
of the studs, slightly under $60, not including labor. The cost would 
be much less in many places. 

Care of Corn-stover. — "No subject is more important for the farmers 
in this latitude than the care and use of corn-stover; anything bearing 
on this must be useful. I therefore wish to tell your readers of a 
cheap and simple, yet very useful, device for preventing husked 
fodder from heating," writes Alexander Johnson, of Fort Wayne, 
Indiana. 

"Yesterday I visited a friend who had his corn husked and 
shredded by a traveling husker. Although the fodder was by no 
means dry when put in the mow, it is now perfectly bright and sweet. 
My friend packed his shredded fodder as closely as possible in his 
mow. Finding after a day or two that it began to heat he went to 
his forge and made himself a sort of harpoon of three-eighths inch rod 
iron. This he plunged into the mow as far as he could reach and 
drew it out, thus pulling out a few handfuls of fodder and making a 
vent or air hole into the mow. He did this repeatedly until the heat 
went down, which only took an hour or two. Anyone can make 
such a tool in a few minutes if he has a forge, as every farmer ought 
to have; if not, a blacksmith will make it for a few cents. This 



352 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

device may be a very old one, but at any rate it is new to me, and my 
friend thinks it is an original idea, and that it has saved his fodder, 
which otherwise would soon have become musty." 

Broom-corn is hardy, is a great drouth-resister and thrives under 
reasonably unfavorable conditions. It can be planted from any time 
from the opening of spring until as late as July i, with fair assurance 
of a crop. But as early harvesting and early marketing are especially 
desirable, it is usually advisable to plant it as early as Indian corn is 
planted. 

There are numerous methods of planting it. It is planted in rows, 
checked and drilled. Drilling in rows gives the best results. The 
rows should be about three and one-half feet apart and the stalks 
about six to eight inches apart in the rows on ordinary upland, and a 
little thicker on bottom land. If it is planted too thin on good soil 
the heads become so heavy that their own weight bends many of 
them down, forming the "crooks." This crooked brush is heavy, but 
because it is more difficult to make into brooms and makes a larger 
bulk in shipping it brings only about half price on the market. 
Owing to its being a hardy plant the cultivation of broom-corn is 
often sadly neglected. It will make a fair showing on poor land with 
very little cultivation, but it responds to good treatment and should 
be cultivated as often and as thoroughly as Indian corn. After the 
first heads appear it is not long before it is ready for harvesting, and 
everything should be in readiness, because it soon depreciates in 
value after it is once ripe enough to cut. In order to make the best 
brush it should be cut when the seeds are in the dough stage. A 
small patch for seed can be left until fully mature. 

The standard varieties are harvested by breaking two rows 
together in such a manner as to form a table upon which the heads 
after being cut off are laid to cure. It should remain in the field 
about a day. A light rain or a heavy dew injures the color of the 
brush. It is well, if possible, to cure it entirely in a shed. But if put 
in while green it must be placed in thin layers, which requires con- 
siderable extra shed room. If left in the field, however, about a day 
after cutting until it is nearly cured, it can be piled in good-sized 
layers, under cover, and seeded when convenient. The seeding is 
done by holding the brush on a cylinder similar to a thrashing 
machine cylinder. After it has been seeded it should be bulked 




United States Department of Agriculture 

A FIELD OF PUMPKINS GROWN FOR SEED. 

Pumpkins are such a robust rollicking kind of vegetable that we can- 
not imagine the man who is carrying them away to be in anything but 
good humor. 




Courtesy of Breeder' s Gazette 



SHELLING CORN IN MEXICO. 



In many respects Mexico is an up-to-date country, having in her mining and agricultural 
methods largely adopted and imported the improved machinery of the United States. The 
picture explains itself. 




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THE FARM 3S2 

down in good-sized piles and allowed to dry until the stems break 
quite readily. Then it is ready to bale. Both the seeder and the 
baler for a small farmer can be made by any carpenter at a trifling 
cost. 

The yield varies with the soil and locality, but a good average 
yield is a ton of thrashed brush from three to five acres. An experi- 
enced hand can cut about one acre a day. The thrashing and baling 
costs about $4 per ton. The price varies so much that the profits for 
one year can seldom be assumed as a standard. Ordinary brush 
averages about $60 to $70 per ton. 

It is a good crop on the sod. It shades the ground and helps to 
rot the sod, besides making as good a growth as Kaffir or sorghum 
without cultivation. 

The seeds and stalks are utilized for feed, but their feeding value 
is low, and it would hardly pay to raise it for feed alone, although in 
the western part of Oklahoma dwarf broom-corn is sown for rough- 
age instead of sorghum because it does not sour in the stack so 
badly. After the brush is harvested the stalks can be used for forage 
and then plowed under, making an excellent green manure. 

Its cultivation on a very large scale is seldom successful, but if 
properly handled on a small scale, say from fifteen to twenty-five 
acres for the average farmer, and especially on new land where the 
variety of sure crops is limited, it will prove to be as paying as 
almost any crop that can be raised. 

WHEAT AND ITS CULTIVATION 

The manifold uses to which wheat has been put as a food-maker 
has caused it to be looked upon as the king of grains, and there is 
probably no one of them which has received so much attention from 
inventors of farm machinery. Improvements in the sowing of the 
seed, the cultivation of the soil and the harvesting of the grain are so 
numerous as to form a class by themselves. While foreign countries 
are being educated to learn the value of corn as a food product, for 
centuries they have known the value of wheat, and used the grain in 
many forms. 

In the United States the value of the corn crop, however, is about 
twice that of wheat. Abroad our principal competitor in the pro- 
duction of the latter cereal is Russia, whose crop amounts to some 



3S4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

450,000,000 bushels yearly, against the 520,000,000 produced in the 
United States. 

The wheat belt is the widest of the important grains. In Novem- 
ber wheat begins to ripen in Peru and South Africa; in January, 
Australasia commences to harvest it; in February, March and April, 
East India, Egypt, Asia Minor, Mexico, etc. In May wheat begins 
to ripen in southern United States, and the last of the crop is 
harvested in the fields of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Canada in 
September, or later. 

Then the great elevator systems come into play and the world 
commences to draw upon the United States for much of its supply. 

The subject is so broad, and yet familiar, that we here present 
only a few practical matters. 

Wheat Cultivation. — An authority on the subject gives the following 
as the best way to cultivate wheat: "On soils really calculated for 
wheat, though in different degrees, summer fallow is the first and 
leading step to gain a good crop of that grain. The first furrow 
should be run before winter, or as early as the other operations of 
the farm will admit, and every effort should be made to go as deep 
as possible, for it rarely happens that any of the succeeding furrows 
exceed the first one in that respect. The number of after-plowings 
must be regulated by the condition of the ground and the state of the 
weather, but in general it may be observed that plowing in length 
and across, alternately, is the way by which the ground will be most 
completely cut and the intention of fallowing accomplished." 

Wheat Manure. — A good wheat manure may be made as follows: 
Take twenty-eight pounds of crude potash, one hundred pounds of 
common salt, two hundred pounds each of bone dust and gypsum 
(plaster of Paris) and fifteen bushels of wood ashes. Mix them well 
together. 

Diseases of Wheat. — Wheat is perhaps subject to more diseases than 
any of the other grains. Among the most important are blight, 
mildew, rust and smut. Besides these troubles, brought about by 
conditions of the weather, there is the danger of the attack of various 
insects either at the roots or upon the ear and straw. Blight, which 
originates from too moist weather, or hoar frost, affects first the leaf 
or straw and then the ear. In fact it may be called a stoppage of 
perspiration, and is most fatal when the grain is forming. 



THE FARM 355 

Mildew on the ear originates from similar causes, and usually 
appears earlier than blight. In warm, moist seasons, a gum, much 
like mildew, is often deposited, which is generally accompanied by 
minute vegetable growths. One remedy for the removal of blight is 
ammoniacal liquor— one part of liquor to six of water, boiled together. 
A decoction of elder leaves will prevent, or remove mildew, if the 
disease is not too far advanced. A solution of common salt in water, 
in the proportion of a pound to a gallon, is an excellent remedy for 
mildew. After sprinkling three or four days the mildew will disap- 
pear, leaving only a discoloration of the straw where it was 
destroyed. 

Rust is brought on by extreme heat, and gathers on the stalks and 
leaves. It is easier to be treated than either blight or mildew, as all 
that is needed is to furnish the stricken wheat with the required 
moisture. 

The treatment for smut in wheat, as in other grains, will be found 
on page 357. 

OATS, RYE AND BARLEY 

This is the general order of importance in which the staple grain 
crops of the United States follow corn and wheat. The oat crop is 
by far the greatest in value of the grains named above, amounting to 
about $200,000,000 per annum, or two-thirds that of wheat. 

Oals. — The varieties of this grain are more numerous than those 
of any other; among these are the common oat, the Angus, the 
Poland, the red, the Siberian and the potato. 

"Oats are chiefly sown after grass," it is stated by an expert; 
"sometimes upon land not rich enough for wheat, that has previously 
been summer-fallowed, or has carried turnips; often after barley, but 
rarely after wheat. One plowing is usually given to the grass lands, 
and the land sufficiently mellowed for receiving the harrow. The 
best oats, both in quantity and quality, are those which succeed 
grass." The chief oat-producing districts in the United States are 
embraced by Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas. 

Rye. — This grain should never be sown upon wet soils or even 
upon sandy soils where the subsoil is of a retentive nature. Upon all 
soft lands, which have been well manured, rye thrives well. It may 



356 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

succeed clover or turnips; even after oats good crops have been 
raised. The great producers of rye in the United States are Penn- 
sylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Kansas, Iowa and Illinois. 

Barley is best raised on light and sharp soils, and its production has 
been greatly increased within the past twenty years by the growth of 
the brewing industry both at home and abroad. It is a tender grain 
and easily injured during any of the stages of its growth. Even the 
harvesting of it is difficult. Owing to the brittleness of the straw 
after it has reached a certain stage of growth, it must be cut down, as 
when allowed to stand longer much loss is sustained by the breaking 
of the heads. Barley, in fact, is raised at a greater expense than 
most of the grains, because of these many risks which must be taken. 

VARIED FARM CROPS 

Frank Skinner, of Sibley, Illinois, is a tenant farmer who grows 
corn and oats for his money crops, but he has shown that he need 
not stop at these two staple crops for all the money the farm returns 
to him. He has been experimenting in various directions, and for 
his winter market has 40,000 gladiolus bulbs, which are worth from $4 
to $10 a thousand at wholesale, and there is a steady demand for 
them. 

Mr. Skinner also has tried small fruits on a small scale, as he has 
not had time to devote much attention to them while growing his 
main crops. He has but a small patch devoted to berries, yet each 
year he sells to tenants of the Sibley estate something like $100 worth 
of berries. This branch of fruit growing is neglected everywhere by 
farmers who think they cannot bother with small truck, and yet here 
is a case where a tidy sum of money is being made every year at a 
very small expenditure of time, while the farmer is tending his main 
crops. 

The average crop of corn on the Sibley farms is thirty-six bushels. 
For his berries Mr. Skinner gets as much money as could be got for 
the product of ten acres of corn, and they were grown on a small plat 
of ground, with one-tenth of the labor that would have been 
expended on the corn. It is safe to say that of the $100 received for 
the berries not to exceed $20 should be charged to the expense of 
growing them. This shows where profit may lie in small things. 



the farm 357 

HOW TO TREAT SMUTTY GRAIN 

Conservative estimators place the average annual loss of oats due 
to smut at eight per cent, of the total crop. This means three to four 
bushels per acre, or $50,000,000 worth every year in the entire United 
States. All this loss might be prevented by properly treating the 
seed before sowing. The Department of Agriculture recommends 
two methods of killing the smut parasite. They are described on 
page 41 1 of the 1894 Year Book, and also in Farmers' Bulletin, No. 75. 
Those who are intending to sow a large acreage of oats should send 
for this bulletin. 

The Jenson hot-water method consists in scalding the grain in 
water heated to a temperature of 132 to 133°. The grain is first wet 
and warmed in water kept at a temperature of 110° to 120 , and then 
plunged in and out of the scalding hot water six or eight times in ten 
minutes, the oats being held in a wire basket or gunny sack. This 
method is hardly practicable, as it is a difficult matter to keep the 
water at the requisite temperature, which must not vary more than 
one degree. 

Soaking the seed in a solution of potassium sulphide is the other 
method recommended. Buy one pound of "liver of sulphur" for 
every six bushels of oats to be treated, and keep in an air-tight vessel 
until ready to use. It costs twenty-five to fifty cents per pound. 
Dissolve one and one-half pounds in twenty-five gallons of water in a 
barrel or other wooden vessel and mix thoroughly. Pour in three 
bushels of oats and leave twenty-four hours, stirring several times 
during the day to insure the wetting of each grain. The oats should 
be spread out and allowed to dry before sowing. The same solution 
should not be used more than three times. Where large quantities 
of oats are treated a hogshead or wooden tank may be used. Don't 
allow the solution to come in contact with any metal. 

Out in Adams County, Washington, blue vitriol is used as a smut 
killer, one pound being considered sufficient for five bushels of grain. 
The latter is enclosed in a gunny sack and dipped in a barrel two- 
thirds full of water, to which enough blue vitriol has been added to 
color the liquid a deep blue. The blue vitriol should first be dis- 
solved in hot water. After soaking five minutes the grain is removed 
and placed on an inclined plane so that the surplus liquid will run 



358 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

back into the barrel. After draining the grain is spread out to dry 
and is soon ready to sow. 

One Iowa farmer finds one pound of blue vitriol sufficient to kill 
the smut parasite in sixteen bushels of oats. One ounce of blue 
vitriol is used to each gallon of water. The solution is sprinkled on 
the grain, which is shoveled over and resprinkled until one gallon of 
the solution has been absorbed by each bushel of oats. The man 
above alluded to has followed this method for thirty-five years with 
complete success on both wheat and oats. 

Another excellent method is to dissolve one pound of formalin in 
fifty gallons of water and then sprinkle the oats with this solution, 
using one gallon for each bushel. Spread out the oats in a layer 
three inches deep and sprinkle until thoroughly wet, then add 
another layer, sprinkle again, and so on. Allow it to soak two 
hours, then spread out and shovel over once or twice a day until dry. 
Formalin costs fifty to seventy-five cents per pound. It is also 
used to kill potato scab, but it is not so effective as corrosive sub- 
limate. 

It is to be hoped that those who sow oats will treat their seed 
according to one of the above described methods. This is a new 
thing to most farmers, but there is no doubt about its desirability and 
effectiveness. 

An experienced grain grower says especially about wheat: "To 
wash your seed wheat take a common washtub about two-thirds full of 
water and pour into it half a bushel of the grain, and after stirring with 
a stick skim or pour off what rises on the water, taking care not to let 
the good wheat run out; then empty into a basket or some vessel 
that will retain the wheat, and drain off the water; put it on a clean 
floor and sift or sprinkle onto it about a peck of dry ashes, stirring it 
over thoroughly so as to cover all the surface with the ashes. Treat 
the whole quantity to be sown in the same way. After it has lain a 
few hours it will be ready for sowing. This has proved a sure pre- 
ventive in every case of trial with me, but when it has been omitted 
there has been plenty of smutty grain." 

BIRD AND INSECT PESTS 

How most effectually to rid the farm of troublesome and destruc- 
tive pests, such as crows, sparrows, weevil, chinch bugs, ants, flies, 



THE FARM 359 

etc., etc., is a great problem. Some practical suggestions which will 
go to solve the question are given below: 

"Scarecrows"— Some Novel Suggestions. — Here are a few novel sug- 
gestions for "scarecrows" where such sentinels are necessary. Two 
small, cheap looking-glasses fastened back to back should be hung by 
a cord from the top of a long slanting pole. On a sunshiny day, as 
the glasses swing, the rays of light are reflected wildly all over the 
field, and being a mystery it will terrify crows and other invaders. 

"Take a large potato and long goose or duck feathers, which are 
to be stuck into it so as to resemble the spread tail and wings of a 
hawk. It is astonishing," says the Scientific American, "what a fero- 
cious looking bird of prey can be constructed from the above simple 
material. It only remains to hang the bird from a tall, bent pole, and 
the winds will do the rest. The bird will make sweeps and dashes in 
a most threatening manner." 

A farmer friend declares that if a few kernels of corn be strung 
on long horse hairs and placed about in the fields they will help to 
keep away the crows. The crow will swallow some of them and 
make such a fuss in his efforts to get rid of the astonishing dose that 
he will drive his friends away and go away himself. 

Sparrow Extermination.— Farmers who are troubled with the devas- 
tation of their crops by English sparrows will probably be interested 
in a method of extermination of these winged pests as described in a 
New South Wales report. 

In substance, it deals with a method of strategy to entice the 
sparrows so as to readily eat grains of wheat which have been thrown 
into a compartment, one end of which is divided off and in which is 
kept a fowl. The sparrows must not be molested in feeding, and 
after a week the wheat should be soaked in sugar and vinegar. 
Allow the birds to become used to this mixture when the "deadly" 
work may be brought into action. Mix a little strychnine, which has 
been dissolved with some vinegar and plenty of sugar. Soak the 
wheat in the poisonous mixture. Let this stand for twelve or more 
hours, then drain off the liquor and dry. A small quantity should 
then be sprinkled in the unoccupied portion of the coop at the time 
when the fowl is receiving its allowance of wheat. It is very deadly, 
one or two treated grains killing a sparrow. The dead birds should 
be removed from the coop or the sparrows may take fright, 



360 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Destroying the Grain Weevil. — In the fall the grain weevil begins his 
work. The use of carbon bisulphide in destroying it is very effective. 
In ordinary cribs and bins the most important provision is to make 
the room as nearly as possible gas-tight in order that the gas may 
remain in all parts of the space in full strength and for the required 
time. It must enter by diffusion all cracks and crevices, even those 
between the grains of corn in the ear, and must penetrate the burrow 
of the individual weevil or its grub in the wheat berry. This thorough 
diffusion will only occur after some time, even in a saturated atmos- 
phere. Twenty-four hours is short enough for certainty, even where 
the gas can be kept full strength in the bin. 

Except with highly organized insects death does not occur imme- 
diately, and partial suffocation may only render the insect insensible, 
leaving it to recover fully upon the airing out of the bin, or the 
gradual escape of the gas through cracks in the floor or sides of the 
bin; allowing the entrance of fresh air may cause failure through the 
subsequent revival of the insect. The adult grain moth readily 
succumbs to gas, while the larvae will stand more and yet revive. 
The black weevil is most difficult to kill, specimens remaining over 
night in an experimental killing bottle sometimes recovering when 
removed therefrom the next day. Hence, to destroy all these it will 
be necessary to continue the action of the gas in full strength for at 
least twenty-four hours, and to do this the bin must be made tight, 
the fluid carbon bisulphide be used in liberal quantities, and in case 
of doubt the experiment repeated. 

Wheat may be largely kept free from weevil by proper handling, 
frequent shifting and fanning, such constituting the chief reliance in 
the elevators. Corn in cribs can scarcely be freed from weevil while 
remaining there owing to the practical impossibility of making the 
crib sufficiently tight. Tarpaulins and stack-covers are useful in 
assisting to retain the gas within limits, but are by no means tight 
enough to prevent the escape of the gas by diffusion before the black 
weevil can be destroyed. 

As carbon bisulphide is highly inflammable no fire or light should 
be allowed about the bin while the fumigation is going on. 

Exterminating Chinch Bugs. — The chinch bug we have always with 
us, and it is well to prepare for him in advance. This may be done 
with little trouble if begun in time. Last season the following 



THE FARM 361 

method was successful at the Oklahoma Experiment Station. A 
drive extended along the west side of the wheat field; next to this 
drive was a narrow strip of castor beans and then a few rows of 
cotton and next to the cotton four rows of sorghum. Cow-peas were 
listed in the wheat ground as soon as the wheat was cut, which 
destroyed some bugs. Many escaped and went across the drive, the 
castor beans and cotton to the sorghum. When they had well 
collected on this, four rows planted as a "trap crop" were plowed under 
very deep and rolled down hard. Beyond this strip were a few rows 
of cotton and then four more rows of sorghum also planted as a "trap 
crop." The bugs that escaped from the first trap passed on to the 
second, and when they had collected in this second strip it was 
plowed as the first and thereby nearly all the bugs were completely 
destroyed. A few more rows of cotton were planted beyond to the 
west of the second strip that was plowed, and then Kaffir corn, which 
was saved from the bugs. This may often be done in a similar way 
if the crops are planted with this in view. 

The few bugs that escape such vigorous treatment as this should 
be infected with the chinch bug disease. Those who wish infection 
should send a small package of bugs to the Agricultural Experiment 
Station, Stillwater, Oklahoma, and will receive in return a package of 
infected bugs with direction for spreading the infection. This should 
be done early and before the bugs begin to destroy the crops. 

The following remedy for chinch bugs was suggested in 1895 by 
Prof. S. A. Forbes, state entomologist of Illinois: "Dissolve one-half 
pound hard or soft soap in one gallon of water and heat to the 
boiling point. Remove from stove and add two gallons of coal oil, 
churning the mixture with a good force pump for fifteen minutes. 
When the emulsion is formed it will look like buttermilk. 

"To each quart of this emulsion add fifteen quarts of water, and 
apply to the corn in a spray — preferably before 10 A.M. or after 3 P.M. 
The bugs should be washed off so that they will float in the emulsion 
at the base of the plant. A teacupful to a hill is generally sufficient, 
but the quantity must vary with the number of bugs infesting the 
corn." 

The progress of these bugs through a field may be obstructed by 
making a shallow V-shaped trench with the corner of a hoe and 
filling it with coal tar, the tar to be removed in two or three days. 



362 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

They may also be destroyed by plowing them under and harrowing 
and rolling. 

One of the very best ways to fight chinch bugs is to make war upon 
them in their winter quarters. They hibernate in old trees, stumps, 
piles of leaves, brush, corn-stalks, etc. Burn everything of this kind 
you can. 

To Destroy Ant Hills. — Carbolic acid in water, three ounces to the 
gallon, sprinkled upon ant hills in the lawn will destroy them or drive 
them away. 

Place a little tartar emetic mixed with sugar in a shallow vessel, 
and stand it in the path of the ants you wish to exterminate. They 
will eat of this poison and take it home to the queen. After she 
succumbs to the effects of the poison, of course there will be no 
increase of the little pests, and they will finally disappear. This 
mixture may be preserved from year to year and still be a satisfac- 
tory exterminator of ants. Destroying the queen is the only way to 
get rid entirely of the little pests. 

Destroying Insects on Plants or Animals. — "It may not be generally 
known that skim milk or buttermilk readily mixes with kerosene, 
forming an emulsion which destroys insects without danger of injury 
to the animals or plants on which they may be. We first learned of 
this from using the mixture for the scale insect, or mite, which causes 
scaly legs on fowls. It was found that one or two dippings or 
washings with it would cure the worst case of scaly leg and leave the 
skin as smooth as when first hatched. We never had occasion to try 
it for lousy animals, for we never had one, but we do not hesitate to 
recommend it, and we have lately seen its use advised for ticks on 
sheep, using a gill of kerosene to one gallon of milk. We did not 
make our mixture so strong of kerosene as that, but perhaps the 
larger tick may need a stronger application than an insect so small as 
to be scarcely visible to the naked eye." 

Building a Vermin-proof Granary. — It is surprising to see how few 
corn-cribs and granaries are built vermin-proof. By setting the posts 
in the ground and placing a tin pan on top of each, beneath the sills, 
rats and other vermin may be very easily kept out. The same result 
may be as easily obtained if one wishes to build in a more substantial 
manner by setting the posts of the building itself, which should 
extend three feet below the sills and rest on large flat stones or 



THE FARM tfi 

masonry to prevent rotting, and then tacking good-sized sheets of 
tin around the posts to prevent the rats and mice climbing. The 
amount of grain destroyed by vermin in ill-erected granaries can 
hardly be estimated, but it is an immense amount. Why not 
prevent it? 

HOW TO KILL JINSON WEED 

The jimson weed, with which most farmers are familiar, is an 
annual, and may easily be killed or eradicated. The step to take is 
to prevent it from maturing or spreading seed. Where extensive 
patches abound they may be mowed down while in blossom. 

Jimson weeds are poisonous. The seeds will kill children and 
animals that eat them. The flowers, too, are poisonous to all living 
beings who suck their petals. In cases where young plants of these 
varieties of the nightshade family have been unobserved in grass and 
cut and dried in the hay the horses and other stock that ate the hay 
were fatally poisoned. Cattle generally avoid the green plant, as its 
rank odor is unpleasant to them. The weeds are dangerous nuisances 
and should be destroyed. 

The more discouraging the waste pile seems to be to all other 
vegetation the more attractive and nutritive it is to this vile weed. 
Because it springs up in waste it is often considered of no account as 
a weed, and that is where the farmer errs. Left to mature its seeds 
in the waste, the nuisance can depend upon natural agencies to carry 
its poisonous seeds where they will do the most harm. 

CURING SKINS OF SMALL GAME 

Boys on the farm who go out on autumn days in search of game 
should not forget that the skins of raccoons, minks, muskrats, rabbits, 
foxes, deer, cats, dogs, woodchucks and skunks are all valuable. 
Handsome robes may be made from the skins of the last two animals, 
and fur coats are made from the skins of woodchucks, well tanned, 
dyed and trimmed, which are elegant as well as comfortable, and no 
one but a connoisseur will be able to guess their origin. Of the finer 
and nicer furs, beautiful collars, muffs, cuffs, caps, gloves and trim- 
mings may be made with little ingenuity and perseverance, and who 
would not feel great satisfaction in wearing a nice article from the 
fact that it was a product of his own manufacture and taste? 



364 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

A very good and simple tanning process for use on the farm is to 
sprinkle the flesh side, after scraping it well, with equal parts of 
pulverized alum and salt, or washing it well with a strong solution of 
the same, then folding the flesh side together and rolling it compactly, 
in which state it should remain for eight or ten days; then it is 
opened, sprinkled with bran or sawdust to absorb the moisture and 
rolled up again. After remaining twenty-four hours the process is 
completed by thorough rubbing and manipulation, on which the plia- 
bility depends. 

Skins when taken off should be freed from grease or flesh by 
thorough scraping, when they may be dried and left to await the 
leisure of the owner. Previous to tanning they must be well soaked 
and wrung dry. 

Take about ten gallons of soft water, one-half bushel of wheat 
bran and seven pounds of sulphuric acid. After dissolving put the 
skins into the solution and allow them to remain twelve hours; take 
them out and clean them well, and again immerse twelve hours or 
longer if necessary. The skins may then be taken out, well washed 
and dned. They can be beaten soft if desired. 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE GARDEN 

Proper Drainage, Fertilizing, and Watering — Selecting and Testing the Seeds 
—Garden Tools — The Hand Hoe— The Vegetable Garden— When and 
How to Plant Different Vegetables — Weeds and How to Get Rid of 
Them — Harvesting Vegetables — Potatoes, Cabbages, Cauliflower, Toma- 
toes, Onions, Rhubarb, Asparagus, Horseradish, Celery, Pumpkins, 
Turnips, Oyster Plant, Mushrooms and Other Vegetables: How to Raise 
Them and Properly Care for Them — Berries, Grapes, and Melons — Shrubs 
and Flowers — Ginseng and Peanuts — Insect Pests and Insecticides. 

The commonest excuse for not having a garden is that there is 
no money in it, and the owner cannot afford to waste his time on it; 
but this is no reason at all. There is not a good garden on any farm 
that has not paid for itself in cash every year it has been cultivated. 
The farmer who has not a good garden usually lives largely on 
bread, meat and potatoes, and his outlay for sugar and coffee, spice 
and other needful things amounts to a considerable sum in a year. 
Even if he produces his own meat and flour and potatoes they are 
all staple articles, which may be sold any day in the year for cash, 
and are, therefore, to be counted as cash in making up the accounts 
of the year. 

If there is on the farm a good garden filled with all the varieties 
of vegetables that may be grown in the locality, there is an immense 
saving in the consumption of meat, flour and potatoes, vegetables 
being substituted for these articles. A half acre garden will produce 
enough vegetables for the largest family, and for at least five months 
in the year some of these are available every day in supplying the 
table with wholesome food that is both appetizing and nutritious — 
and please observe that wholesome, appetizing and nutritious are not 
terms that are interchangeable. An article of food may combine all 
three, or any one or two of them without the others. 

This garden produce is invariably wholesome, appetizing and 
nutritious,*and may be produced at less actual cost for the amount of 

365 



3 66 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

food value than any other food products. This being true, the 
garden is a money-saving institution, as well as a promoter of good 
health. 

Draining the Garden. — There is no danger of getting the garden 
too well-drained. If the whole surface were underlaid with tiles at a 
depth of from two to three feet it would be of benefit to the soil. 
Practically there should be, for perfect results, a drain every rod. 
These drains should be given a good outlet and should be three feet 
or more below the surface. In theory a tile drain will "draw" a strip 
four times as wide as the depth of the ditch, but practice teaches that 
tile drains draw much farther than this. In practice drains as far as 
ten rods apart lower the water table over the whole space between 
the drains, but this work is not so quickly done as when the drains 
are close together. 

Drainage is always done with several things in view. The first 
object is to get rid of the surplus water in the soil, the second to per- 
manently lower the level at which water stands in the soil. This 
level is not fixed, but varies with the texture of the soil. Most soils 
hold the water too near the surface for the good of the crops. This 
surface water usually disappears after the spring rains have ceased, 
but in undrained soils it remains long enough to permanently injure 
the crops. 

Another reason for draining is to make the soil porous, so as to 
admit air and warmth that the crops may be planted earlier in the 
spring and grow later in the fall. Well-drained land is not affected 
seriously by either drouth or extremely wet weather, and as a conse- 
quence crops do better in the garden that is well-drained. 

Systematic Planting. — Before the time for planting comes make a 
plan of the garden and plant systematically, so as to get the most off 
the ground during the coming season, and thus make the garden 
more profitable than it ever has been before. 

Plant all the rows north and south, so as to allow the sun to shine 
equally on every row and on bo,th sides of it. 

Plant the early radishes, lettuce, beets, peas, and beans by them- 
selves, on one side of the garden, planting the later vegetables in 
another strip, so as to have one side of the garden clear as soon as 
possible in order to put in the later crop of cucumbers for pickles, 
winter squashes, turnips, celery, etc. 



THE GARDEN 367 

If the garden is planted in this way it will be possible to grow two 
crops on all of it except that part devoted to Lima beans, parsnips 
and one or two other things that require the whole season. Squash 
vines planted among the early potatoes will begin to run about the 
time the potatoes are used up, and will have a free space to grow in. 

Put on a coat of manure and plow it in as soon as the ground can 
be worked in the spring. It may even be plowed a little wet if the 
work is done early enough so that it will freeze afterward, as the 
frost will break up the soil and make it loose and friable. Plow deep 
and thoroughly, for there is no better preventive of the effects of 
drouth than deep plowing and perfect pulverization. 

The farm garden that does not produce at least $50 worth of 
vegetables on half an acre is land wasted, and with a little pains twice 
this amount may be produced. 

Watering the Plants. — Some plants to thrive as they should require 
much more water than others, and on this account if the best growth 
is maintained through the summer more or less watering will be 
necessary. But if watering is necessary, if any considerable amount 
of benefit is secured, it is very essential that it be thorough. One or 
two thorough soakings of the soil in a week around the roots will be 
of much more real benefit to the growing plants than a daily sprink- 
ling on the surface. 

One of the best plans of watering a larger proportion of plants is 
to work the soil into a good tilth, drawing the earth away from the 
plant to some extent, then put on water sufficient to thoroughly wet 
the soil, and throw over this a thin layer of fine soil. This acts as a 
mulch and lessens evaporation, and a large amount of benefit is 
derived and the work need not be repeated so often. 

In nearly all cases where watering is commenced it will have to 
be kept up until there is a good rain. 

FERTILIZING THE GARDEN 

There is no better way to fertilize a garden than to haul fresh 
manure from the stables and spread it over the surface during the 
winter. Contrary to common belief there is never a time when 
manure is so rich in plant food as the day it is made, and the sooner 
after that it can be got to the place where it is to be used the more 
value will it add to the soil. It is almost impossible to put too much 



368 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

manure on a garden. We would not hesitate to put it a foot thick 
on the surface, for it will leach only so much more plant food into 
the soil, and by plowing time next spring will be settled down until it 
can easily be plowed under to furnish humus for the betterment of 
the physical condition of the soil. 

Wood ashes make an excellent fertilizer for the garden, but they 
should be saved and applied on top of the soil after it is plowed in 
the spring, as potash is one of the plant foods that may be washed 
too deeply into the soil to be reached by the roots of the garden 
plants, many of which are shallow rooted. Coal ashes contain no 
plant food of any kind, but if the soil is a little heavy they may be 
used with benefit to make it friable and more easily worked. 

Liquid Manure to Force Vegetation. — There is not much opportunity to 
force vegetation in the open air in an extremely dry time unless it is 
done through this agency, or a supply of water for irrigating is at 
hand. Irrigation is in itself only a system of open air forcing, the 
water supplied acting as a solvent for the plant food in the soil as 
well as furnishing the needed supply for the plants. 

The best way to force a garden is to cover the ground around the 
plants with very fine manure, gradually working this into the soil in 
the course of cultivation. If the rainfall is plentiful the beneficial result 
is shown at once. If the weather is dry the manure will not act so 
quickly unless the soil is soaked with water from some artificial source. 

Where one is so situated that it is not feasible to buy concentrated 
fertilizers there is nothing better than liquid manure to take its place, 
and in many respects the liquid manure is better than any other form 
of plant food. If the weather is dry commercial fertilizers do not act 
at once, while a plant which is given liquid manure gets immediate 
benefit from the moisture and the plant food thus furnished. 

Commercial Fertilizers almost always make a good showing when 
used to force crops into quick growth. On turnips, lettuce, onions 
and beets the effect of a light dressing of nitrate of soda is very 
marked after a few days, because the nitrogen tends to stimulate the 
growth of the leaves, and these in turn cause a strong root growth. 
The plants that root deeply do not get the benefit so quickly, but they 
are also benefited. Sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of potash and other 
nitrogenous fertilizers also furnish a supply of plant food for open 
air forcing. 










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THE GARDEN 369 

Any farm produces the material for liquid manure. Take any 
old barrel and fill it with fresh horse manure, packed down solid. 
Both heads should be taken out of the barrel, and it should be set on 
a sloping platform. Then pour in water until it begins to leach out 
at the bottom, where it may be caught in a trough or bucket and put 
around the plants. Half a pint of this liquid to a plant twice a week 
will furnish enough plant food to push it into fine growth and keep 
it in full vigor even in quite dry weather. Plants that are being fed 
in this way should have the soil about them stirred very often in 
order to prevent the formation of a crust and the evaporation of the 
moisture in the soil. 

THE SELECTION OF SEEDS 

It is impossible to raise any good crop from poor seeds. Usually 
when there is a failure in a garden crop that has been well cared for 
the failure comes from sowing seed of low vitality. No one should 
sow seeds that have not been tested, nor any that are not plump and 
fresh looking. In judging seeds by looking at them it should be 
remembered that a good many kinds are naturally thin or wrinkled 
or of a dried-up appearance, but a little examination will show 
whether the seed is in condition to do its best or not. 

Testing the Seeds. — It is very easy to test seeds. Pick out ten of 
each kind and place them on a piece of damp cotton batting laid on 
a plate. Over the seeds lay another piece of batting and dampen it. 
Then set the seeds where they will be warm all the time, and in a 
few days they will germinate if they are good. Where this way of 
testing is used the top layer of batting can be turned back at any 
time without interfering with the seeds, and this allows the experi- 
menter to notice how the work is going forward. 

Cautions as to Buying. — As a rule it is best to buy garden seeds 
direct, the best seedsmen refusing to allow their seeds to be sold on 
commission in grocery stores and other similar places. Nearly all 
reliable seedsmen have their own trial grounds where seeds are care- 
fully tested, but very few of them grow more than a dozen varieties 
of seeds. They can get better seeds by contracting with specialists 
— men who make the growing of a particular vegetable a special 
business. 

Commission seeds are often returned year after year to be sent 



37© PRACTICAL RECIPES 

out again until they lose their vitality. Get catalogues, which are 
offered very freely, and make selections of seeds, and you will be 
almost absolutely certain of getting a good crop of what you want if 
you do your part. 

Where the Seed Comes From. — It is not generally known that a very 
large proportion of the garden seeds sold by seedsmen in this country 
is not grown by the seedsmen who advertise them, but by specialists 
residing, in many cases, across the ocean. For instance, only a few 
varieties are grown west of the Mississippi River. Asparagus seed 
is grown in New York and Michigan. Bush beans are grown in New 
York and Canada. Lima beans are grown for seed in California and 
New Jersey, and beets in New York, California and France. Brussels 
sprouts are grown in Long Island and France, and carrot seed is 
produced in California, Connecticut and France. Cabbage seed 
comes from Long Island, Connecticut, Germany and France, and 
cauliflower seed from Denmark and Holland. Sweet corn is supplied 
by Connecticut, New York, Ohio and Nebraska. Cucumber seed is 
furnished by Nebraska and New York. New Jersey produces egg- 
plant seed. Connecticut and Long Island supply kale seed. Lettuce 
seed comes from California; muskmelon from New Jersey and 
Nebraska; watermelon from Georgia, Kansas and Nebraska; onion 
from Connecticut, New York, Michigan and California. Parsley seed 
grows in England and France. Connecticut and France furnish 
parsnip seed. Peas are obtained from New York, Michigan and 
Ontario, and pumpkin and squash seed from Nebraska. New Jersey 
and France produce the pepper seed, and the latter country grows 
practically all the radish seed sold in this country. Spinach comes to 
us from Holland and France; tomato seed from New Jersey and 
Michigan, and turnip seed from Connecticut, New York and France. 

GARDEN TOOLS 

It does not pay anyone, no matter how small his garden may be, 
to try to work with poor tools. The most essential of all garden 
tools is the much despised hoe. With it, about all kinds of garden 
work may be done. Without it, it is impossible to have a good garden. 
To work with a good sharp hoe is a pleasure to anyone who likes any 
kind of work. With a poor hoe the task becomes burdensome pretty 
soon. A hoe that is kept bright and sharp is the handiest tool ever 



THE GARDEN 371 

invented, and with it more kinds of farm work can be done than with 
any two others. 

Notwithstanding this, there is a cheaper way of doing much of the 
garden work than by using a hoe. If a garden has anything more 
than a quarter of an acre in it a good wheel hoe will pay for itself 
the first year and will last ten years; so it is a very profitable little 
machine to invest in. The original cost is from $3 up, the $3 kind 
being just as good for most purposes as the high priced ones. 

A dibber should be part of the equipment of every garden. A 
good one can be bought for fifteen cents, or one can be made out of 
a crooked stick. This is used to make a hole in the ground in which 
to set such plants as need transplanting, like cabbage, beets, toma- 
toes, etc. 

A steel rake is also indispensable in garden work, and a good one 
costs but fifty cents. 

A spading fork with which to loosen the soil and dig potatoes 
completes the list of tools that everyone who grows a garden must 
have. 

The total cost of the whole lot will be less than $10, and such an 
investment will make garden work so much easier that the tools will 
pay for themselves in the increased crop that will follow better culti- 
vation. Keep the garden tools always bright and in condition for the 
most effective use, and the garden will grow because it can be 
properly cared for with little labor. 

Selecting and Caring for the Hand Hoe. — It is probably true that the 
neglect we notice in most farm gardens is due to the horror most 
men have of using a hand hoe in cultivating garden crops. 

"In the first place very few men exercise any care in selecting a 
hand hoe. There is a great difference among hoes in the crook of 
the shank, and on this depends altogether the fitness of any given 
one for the man who is to use it. The hoe that works nicely for a 
tall man would be an uncomfortable one for a short man," writes an 
agriculturist. 

In selecting a hoe choose one which is bent at the shank so as to 
allow the blade to "bite" into the soil just a little when you stand 
erect with the hoe resting on the ground the length of the hand in 
front of you, the handle being held in the hands in the position for 
work. If the shank is too straight the blade will bite too deeply, if it 



372 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

is too crooked the blade will not enter the ground except the one 
using it gets into a position that soon becomes tiresome. Keep the 
hoe sharp by filing from the inside of the blade, leaving the side next 
the ground perfectly level. Keep the corners sharp and square as 
long as possible, and always clean the blade before putting it away. 

When the hoe is bought buy a file to sharpen it with, and the first 
thing give it a good filing and then rub linseed oil on the handle until 
no more will soak in. If linseed oil is not handy any kind of oil, or 
even lard or tallow, will improve it in flexibility and durability. Take 
pains to get the oil or grease well worked in at the 'shank, so as to 
prevent water from getting in and loosening the handle. A hoe 
should be good for several years, and after it has been used for two 
or three years it will be better than when new, as the blade will 
become worn thin and it will be lighter to handle, while just as 
serviceable. 

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 

Have you a good place selected for the vegetable garden next 
spring? Let us make a few suggestions: If you have a sandy patch 
about the place devote it to the production of vegetables. A sandy 
soil is better than any other for a garden, for the reasons that it is 
more porous and can be worked earlier in the spring and later in the 
fall; can be worked sooner after rains and is easy to take care of. 
The garden plat should slope toward the south in order that the full 
benefit of sunshine may be secured. 

Lay the garden out in long rows so that cultivation may be given 
with one-horse implements. 

When you have thoroughly harrowed the plat preparatory to 
seeding, and think it is the finest kind of tilth, go over it again to put 
on a finishing touch. 

A comfortable seed bed, if we may use the expression, is essential 
to success in the vegetable garden. 

Don't have the garden in the same place for any two consecutive 
years, but change it. A plat used continuously for a garden becomes 
infested with fungus diseases and insects. 

Keep the garden soil full of humus if you would grow fine vege- 
tables. A dead, compact, fine-grained soil is not adapted to vegetable 
growing. The soil should be porous and active. 



THE GARDEN 373 

A weed has no more business in a garden than a pug dog has in 
the farm home. Keep down weeds and grass. Permit nothing to 
grow in the garden save what you want. 

The man with the hoe can profitably busy himself in the garden 
every morning before breakfast during the growing season. Keep 
the hoe sharp by frequent filing, and skim off the weeds rather than 
dig into the earth about the roots of the plants. 

The vegetable seed should be standard varieties, tried and true. 
Plant them so as to have a succession of vegetables. 

Gardening is a man's business, but if the housekeeper is fond of 
caring for plants the recreation from kitchen performances will be a 
most delightful one. 

It is impossible to prepare and plant the garden as a whole and 
obtain best results. In planting farm crops we do not expect to sow 
the oats, and as soon as that is done plant the corn, because we know 
that corn planted so early in the season would rot in the ground, 
while if the sowing of the oats was to be put off until the soil was 
warm enough for the corn it would be too late to expect to get much 
of a crop of oats. It is the same in planting the garden. The ground 
may be prepared as early in the season as conditions will permit, but 
the planting of the seeds must be done at proper times according to 
the crop planted. 

When to Plant — As soon as the ground can be prepared in the 
spring it is perfectly safe to sow lettuce, and peas may be planted so 
early that the ground freezes afterward and still make a good crop, if 
there does not come a freeze after they are up. 

Onion sets may be put out as early as the ground can be worked 
with ease, and onion seed sown at the same time. Cabbage and 
radishes should be put in very early for early sorts, and the last of 
all for late crops. 

Bush beans, such as wax pods, must not be planted until all danger 
of frost is past, and the same is true of melons, while Lima beans 
should not be put into the ground until the soil is thoroughly warmed 
as deep as plowed. 

For early potatoes it is safe to plant as soon as possible, as they 
are not particularly damaged even if the tops are nipped after they 
peep through the soil. 

Cucumbers should be planted at the same time as melons, and 



374 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

another planting be made along the last of May for pickles. Toma- 
toes should be planted in boxes in the house at any time after the 
beginning of March and from that on, so as to have plants coming on 
to be put in the garden when the weather gets warm. Where tomato 
plants are grown in boxes it improves their vigor to transplant three 
or four times before setting them in their permanent places. 

Care should be taken to plant peas, beans for snap beans, sweet 
corn, radishes and lettuce at various times, so as to keep a succession 
of crops coming on for use. 

How to Plant. — There is no danger of getting the soil of the garden 
too fine, and it should never be planted until it can be got into perfect 
condition. Rake it until it is smooth and fine, raking all lumps to 
one side or into little ridges in the garden. In planting pay no atten- 
tion to these ridges of clods, but plant right alongside them. In a 
few weeks the clods will slack and be as fine as soil ever gets, and 
then it can be worked down to the level as the cultivation of the crop 
goes on. 

Even in a small garden a wheel hoe pays, for it is an actual 
pleasure for a boy to operate one of them, and the boy who would 
almost faint at the prospect of going into a garden with a hoe — 
usually a dull one — is perfectly willing to use a wheel hoe where he 
can be both horse and driver. 

Weeds and How to Get Rid of Them. — It is perfectly safe to say that 
the majority of farm gardens are infested with weeds. These weeds 
are robbers, pure and simple. They have an inherited capacity for 
sustaining life under unfavorable conditions, and when allowed to 
grow in the rich soil of a garden they grow to the exclusion of the 
less hardy garden plants. All weeds are ravenous feeders and send 
their rootlets in every direction, searching for the plant food in the 
soil. They require a large amount of moisture, and are able to 
absorb it in large quantities. 

It is said that it requires 500 pounds of water to grow one pound 
of weeds, and it is not rare to find a single weed plant that will weigh 
a pound. Five hundred pounds of water is more than a barrel, and 
when we realize that all this might have gone to the support of 
useful vegetables instead of useless weeds we will, if good gardeners, 
take more pains to destroy these robbers of the soil. 

Crowd Out Weeds with Turnips. — After the middle of summer is a 



THE GARDEN 375 

critical time in the garden. The farm crops are laid by and the fall 
work has not begun, and the farmer is very often somewhat negligent 
about watching the garden. Here is the beginning of trouble; for 
the weeds of this year produce seeds for next year's crop and for 
that of several years since weeds persist in retaining their vitality 
for several years. 

The cheapest way to keep weeds out of a garden, or any other 
field for that matter, is to keep a useful crop growing on it as much 
of the year as possible. In the average garden the soil is rich, and 
the weeds grow vigorously. If every vacant space in the garden is 
hoed over, or cultivated and sown to turnips, the latter will spring up 
and smother the weeds. It is a comparatively small task to sow a 
big garden with turnips, and it is cheaper to hire a man to do this 
work than to let weeds grow up and seed the land with trouble and 
hard work for the years to come. 

Harvesting the Vegetables. — The clear chilly nights of early October 
remind one that the frosts of winter soon will compel the harvesting 
and storing of the garden crops. Frosts that will kill bush beans 
and prevent the growth of new pods are not necessarily hard enough 
to injure the growing tomatoes, but will kill the foliage and help the 
maturing and ripening of the fruit. 

But even green tomatoes should be gathered before too severe 
frosts, for they will not stand freezing without injury. Ripe cucum- 
bers should not be left out too long, and because turnips will stand a 
hard frost and even one or two slight freezes, if allowed to thaw out 
while in the ground, it must not be forgotten that beets are different; 
they will not stand nearly as severe a frost and must be gotten in 
before the ground freezes. 

Cabbage and turnips may be left out the latest of any of the vege- 
tables usually put in the cellar. The late-sown lettuce may be left 
out and used till destroyed by freezing. Parsnips may be left in the 
ground till spring without any injury — in fact some think they are 
improved by freezing. 

In harvesting the root crops from the garden that is cultivated 
only to supply the home table the common potato fork or a spade 
may be used. Beets, carrots, winter radishes and what parsnips are 
put in the cellar to add variety to the winter bill of fare would better 
have their leaves wrung off by hand than cut off with a knife, unless 



376 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

care is used not to cut the flesh of the vegetable. Bruise as little as 
possible and pack in boxes or barrels with dry earth or sand as 
packing. The tops may be cut off of turnips, even with the fleshy 
part. These too should be packed as the other root crops to be at 
their best. Store cabbage the same way, cutting the head out with 
but few of the outside leaves. Besides keeping the heads hard and 
crisp it prevents any "cabbage smell" in the cellar. In fact a cellar 
filled with vegetables, packed as here outlined, is entirely free from 
offensive odor. 

Before severe freezes take up a few parsley plants and set them in 
any old pails, boxes, or other receptacles that are handy and put in 
the cellar, and a supply of green for garnishing will be furnished till 
a new growth is had in the spring. 

It is hard to find a more ornamental plant than a well-shaped, 
thrifty parsley plant, so if short of nice house plants one can put a 
few parsley plants in neat pots or dishes and have a thing of beauty 
and utility all winter long — though "the beauty" will be somewhat 
marred if the plant is used as a constant source of garnishing mate- 
rial. Do not be so careless as to let the parsley remain out of doors 
till all the plants are destroyed by frost. It is too pretty, and adds 
too much to the table adornment to permit such waste. 

A garden is a good thing in summer. See if it is not even better 
in winter, when its products are safely housed in dirt in the cellar. 

Growing Potatoes. — The three essentials for growing good potatoes 
are good soil, good seed and good culture. New hardwood timber 
land is best, clover sod is next. Clay soil should be plowed in the 
fall, so that the frost may act upon it during the winter. Plow clover 
sod as late as possible and harrow as soon as it is turned over, so that 
the greatest amounUof moisture will be retained. Plant pure seed, 
for mixed varieties do not sell as well in the market and are not as 
good for family use, as they cook unevenly. Keep the seed in a cold 
place during the winter, where sprouting will not take place, for the 
first sprouts are the strongest and best. If they do sprout break' 
these off before planting, so that a fresh, strong growth will start. 
Soak the seed potato in a solution of corrosive sublimate, two ounces 
of sublimate to sixteen gallons of water. Do not plant potatoes year 
after year on the same ground, for the germs of disease live in the 
soil. Cut the seed in two eyes. Whole tubers will give a larger 



THE GARDEN 377 

yield, but the resulting crop will not be uniform. Plant four inches 
deep in rows thirty-three to thirty-six inches apart, about sixteen 
inches apart in the row. 

Drag the ground a few days after planting. Then harrow until 
the potatoes begin to appear above the ground. As soon as the row 
can be seen, go through with a cultivator and throw a light covering 
of soil over the rows. The next day go crosswise with a harrow. 
This will destroy weeds in the hill and give the potatoes a good start. 
Almost any variety of potatoes will run out, but this tendency can be 
prevented to some extent by selection. Plant as soon as possible in 
the spring after the soil is in fit condition for working. 

On many farms there is a truck patch where potatoes and other 
vegetables are grown year after year. This is not a good plan. The 
location of the truck patch should be changed every year or two. In 
growing potatoes for family use it is best to grow the main crop at a 
considerable distance from the place where the crop of the year before 
was grown. If this is done there will be less liability to fungus dis- 
eases, such as scab, rot and blight, and also from the attacks of insects. 

Potato Scab. — Scab is one of the worst diseases that can get started 
in potato land. The only way to combat it seems to be to grow 
other crops in the land for a few years. In fact this is true of the 
most of the diseases that trouble us in our crops, and is one of the 
best arguments in favor of a rotation of crops. 

There is a widespread belief that if rye is sown on potato land and 
plowed under in the spring scab will not appear on the crop, but a 
careful experiment has shown that potatoes planted under such con- 
ditions do not yield as many bushels to the acre, and that the scab is 
more noticeable where the rye has grown than on the same land 
where this grain has not been plowed under. Treatment with corro- 
sive sublimate did not prevent scab where the potatoes were planted 
on land that had produced scabby potatoes the year before. 

In using formalin for the treatment of potato scab H. H. Lamson, 
botanist of the New Hampshire Experiment Station, recommends 
that one pint of formalin be added to thirty gallons of water, or one 
pint to fifteen gallons, according to the amount of seed to be treated. 
The tubers are immersed in this for two hours. Formalin can 
readily be obtained for eighty cents per pint or less. It is rather 
more expensive than corrosive sublimate. 



3?8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

The advantages of formalin are that it is not so violent a poison 
as corrosive sublimate, and is not so likely to injure the potatoes. 
Full strength formalin is very irritating to the eyes and nose, and 
would cause serious trouble if taken internally. Until it is diluted it 
should be handled with caution. 

It generally pays to treat seed potatoes for scab, especially those 
varieties which are most liable to this disease, such as the Early 
Ohio. Unless so treated there is apt to be more or less scab in the 
potato crop even if clean seed be planted. Dissolve one ounce of 
corrosive sublimate in eight gallons of water and soak the seed 
potatoes in this solution an hour and a half. This treatment renders 
the potatoes poisonous. 

Sweet Potatoes and How to Keep Them. — "I find the best way to keep 
sweet potatoes is to have boxes enough to hold all you wish to put 
away," writes Essex Spurrier, of Lyon County, Kentucky, "and put 
them into the boxes as they are picked up from the ground; keep 
them thus in all the handling they get. I prefer a sled to a wagon 
for hauling them in, as the jolting is liable to bruise them, and that is 
just what must be avoided. It is best to have the boxes all the same 
shape and size, but this is not essential — only a convenience in storing 
them away. If you have no suitable cellar, bank them somewhat like 
'Irish' potatoes. Set two rows of boxes on the ground and then set 
a row of these midway, making something like a long heap. By 
putting another row on the ground, another on this and one beside 
it, and still another on top of all, the pile can be made as high as you 
wish; but I never use more than three rows. Put something to hold 
them off the ground a little. With corn-stalks, poles, boards or any- 
thing handy make a slanting siding, not touching any box, and cover 
with straw and earth, leaving a ventilating hole in the top which 
must be closed in cold weather. Roof all over. 

"When cold weather approaches stop the vent hole more and 
more till it is as deeply covered as the rest of the pit. And remem- 
ber that a foot of straw and three inches of dirt will do more toward 
keeping out Jack Frost than three inches of straw and a foot of dirt, 
and govern your work thereby. 

"When the weather begins to soften towards spring open the vent 
hole an hour or so during the middle of the day, stuffing back the 
rags (which I find best for the gradual closing) and leaving off the 



THE GARDEN 374 

earth. Later on take out those you wish to keep till very late and 
pack away in barrels or boxes with perfectly dry sand between them 
so that one potato shall not touch another. Put away where they 
will not freeze or get damp and they can be kept till summer. 

"In the matter of keeping sweet potatoes the most important 
thing experience has taught me is that it is best to bale them if I may 
strain a word to meet an emergency,'' writes Essex Spurrier, of Ken- 
tucky. "I have noticed for many years they began to rot most 
frequently where slight bruises occurred on the skin. To overcome 
this I took the job of handling them myself, so as to be sure they 
were handled carefully, but the spots appeared in spite of me. Then 
I obtained the idea of baling through the agricultural press from a 
practical farmer whose name has slipped my memory. Make boxes 
of any convenient size, not necessarily uniform, though that would 
be best. Provide ventilation at the bottom and slots near the top to 
carry them by. Take these boxes to the field, and, assorting as you 
go, put the potatoes into them, handling each as carefully as if it 
were a new-born baby. If there is rough ground to go over, I prefer 
a sled to haul them in on, though I don't know that this is necessary. 
These 'bales,' as I call them (for I make them of slats), are put ii.to 
the cellar, pit, potato house or any place that will keep them f' om 
heat and moisture or frost, and the contents are never molesteJ in 
any way till taken out for use, consequently they are never bruised, 
and it is so handy to take a box to the kitchen or haul to market. 
The first cost is something, but with proper care they will last a 
life-time." 

Cabbages and How to Keep Them. — Cabbage is not a highly nutritious 
vegetable. As a matter of fact cabbage at a cent a head is very 
costly food if we consider its nutritive value, but this is not a good 
argument against its use. We are in the habit of eating too much 
concentrated food, and if we get into the habit of filling our 
stomachs with such vegetables as cabbage, turnips, string beans and 
other green stuffs we satisfy the appetite and are really better off 
than we would have been if we had spent the money for food of 
greater value in building up the system. 

For late cabbage sow the seed where the plants are to grow, 
planting a dozen seeds in each hill and pulling out all but one after 
the plants are three inches high. Seed planted this way late in May 



380 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

will make a good crop in the fall if planted where the soil has been 
made very rich with stable manure. Cabbage is a short-rooted plant, 
and at the same time a ravenous eater, and must be given plenty of 
material to feed on. Frequent cultivation will cause it to grow even 
though the weather be quite dry. 

By the last of August the leaves will be broad and thick and when 
the cool nights come the heads will begin to form and harden until 
the last of October, when the cabbages should be pulled and turned 
upside down to allow the heads to drain before burying them, for the 
best way to keep cabbage is to bury it in the ground. If any head 
should show an inclination to burst open before the time for pulling 
this can be stopped by pulling it up enough to break most of the 
roots, or by cutting off the roots on one side with a sharp hoe. 

After the cabbage heads have drained dig a ditch on some place 
high enough to insure good drainage during wet weather. Dig this 
ditch a foot wide and deep enough so that when the cabbages are set 
in it, roots down, the heads will lie on the surface, soil on each side. 
Now set the cabbages in the ditch, packing them as closely as possible 
and filling around the roots with loose soil. Place a little soil also 
under the outside leaves to hold them up, and then cover nicely with 
bright straw. After this, bank up carefully until the cabbages are 
buried with six or eight inches of soil over the tops, making the ridge 
smooth and compact by patting it with the spade. Cut a thick sod 
and lay along the top of the ridge, or lay a board along to keep the 
rain from soaking in at the top, and leave it there until the cabbages 
are needed for use. When kept in this way heads that are quite soft 
when put into the pit will fill out nicely, and the heads will remain 
hard and blanch until every leaf will be crisp and fit for use. It does 
not hurt cabbage to freeze once, but if allowed to freeze and thaw, 
the second freezing ruins it. 

Another suggestion: Take an empty barrel — a salt or sugar 
barrel will do very well; dig a hole sufficiently large and deep so that 
a few inches of the barrel will project above the ground when it is 
put in position. Now bank the soil around the barrel so that it will 
be on a level with the top of the barrel and sloping in all directions 
from it. Cut the heads of the cabbage and put into the barrel so 
that the stalk part of the cabbage will be uppermost. So continue 
until the barrel is full; then cover with a lid which will turn water, 



THE GARDEN 381 

made of inch lumber. Cabbage buried in this manner in the fall will 
keep till quite late in the spring, and beside this it can be gotten a^ 
any time in the winter without any trouble. This is a splendid 
method of burying cabbage. 

Black-rot in Cabbage, like the club-root, is hard to stamp out when 
once it is established in an area planted to cabbage. The spores of 
the fungus will retain vitality through the winter if permitted to go 
into the soil. 

The infected heads in a patch should be cut out as soon as they 
show signs of the black-rot. Care should be taken to destroy such 
heads, or at all events to keep the rot from the soil. As in the case 
of club-rooted cabbage the black-rotted cabbage area should not be 
planted a second season. Change the patch promptly. Either 
club-root or black-rot is fatal to the crop. Plant in new places and 
dose the infected soil with lime. 

Raising Cauliflowers. — A deep, moist clay soil is the best for cauli- 
flowers, although good crops can be grown on any good garden soil. 
"I cover the ground two or three inches deep with stable manure and 
plow it in," says a successful gardener, "then harrow and furrow two 
and one-half feet apart. If I have well rotted the manure, I scatter it 
in the furrow and mix it with the soil with the cultivator, or if the ma- 
nure is not at hand I set the plants, and in a few days apply around them 
a little commercial fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen. Vegetables of 
which the leaves or stalks are the edible parts need plenty of nitrogen 
in an available form. The plants are transplanted at different times 
from May until June. Cauliflower plants from the hotbed should not 
be set too early, unless they are well hardened, for they are more easily 
injured by frosts than cabbages. I do the most of the cultivation 
with the wheel hoe and horse cultivator. To insure success in a dry 
season one must have some means of irrigation. The plants should 
not stop growing at any time, hence the importance of irrigating 
them during a drouth or a dry season. Plenty of moisture is 
essential." 

Tomatoes are usually regarded as about the easiest of the vege- 
tables to grow. They will reseed themselves under favorable con- 
ditions and produce fruit year after year, although they invariably 
revert to the original form of a globular fruit about as large as a 
plum. They require a plentiful supply of moisture. 



382 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

If the blossoms of the vines drop off without leaving a small 
tomato on the stem, this would indicate that for some cause there is 
no pollen in the flowers or that they are not fertilized. It is impo: - 
sible to produce fruit of any kind from unfertilized flowers. The 
trouble may lie in the climate or soil, although that seems hardly 
probable if the vines grow luxuriantly. If there are no bees of any 
kind in the neighborhood it is probable that the flowers may not be 
fertilized. In this case as soon as the pollen is ripe, which is when it 
shows in the form of a fine powder in the center of the flowers, take 
a fine brush and gently brush the powder over the flowers. 

Tomatoes should be planted in very rich soil and set pretty deeply 
in the ground, and during dry weather do much better if watered 
once a week. If they do not do well try severe pruning of the vines. 
As soon as a bunch of flowers have opened, pinch the top of that 
branch of the vines and pinch out the sprouts that will, start from the 
axils of the leaves. Keep the vines pruned to two principal stalks 
and do not allow them to grow more than three or four feet high. 
Don't be afraid of hurting the vine by pinching off branches. To do 
this is to force the roots to send all their sap up the branches left, 
and this tends to increase the size of the fruits. The weather is 
never too hot nor the soil too rich for tomatoes. 

Rust is the finest fertilizer for tomatoes; old pieces of iron or old 
stove pipes placed just beneath the surface around tomato roots 
make them vigorous and fruitful. Ashes, not too much, are equally 
good. Bones, burned and ground, or beaten up, answer the same 
purpose. 

The ripening of tomatoes may be hastened considerably by tying 
the plants to stakes and pruning off the sprouts which come up 
around the base of the plants, the object being to get fruit from the 
first blooms and not allow the lower branches, or sprouts, which come 
up later, to produce fruit. By keeping off these sprouts the entire 
strength of the plant is thrown into the upper part. 

In order to carry out this plan successfully the seed should be 
sown in a hotbed sometime in March, and the plants set in the field 
as early as it is safe, selecting a piece of ground that is not too rich. 
A sandy soil is all right, but the highest portions or knolls are better 
than lower, richer lands. The plants should be tied to stakes at once, 
and as they grow the tying should be repeated. It is not necessary 



THE GARDEN 383 

to pinch the tops of the plants in any way, but as they grow up keep 
them tied to the stake, which needs to be about five feet high. 

Ordinary tomatoes can be grown in this manner from one to two 
weeks earlier than if the plants were allowed to fall over on the 
ground. Early varieties should, of course, be selected, and one of 
the best for this purpose is Dwarf Champion, but the Advance, Ruby 
and several others are suitable also. 

The fungus disease causes great losses to tomato growers, and of 
late years is spreading very rapidly. Of this disease Professor 
Lodeman says: "The fungus generally attacks tomatoes when they 
are over one-half grown. The blossom end is attacked, the appear- 
ance of a small black spot being the first indication of the disease. 
The spot increases in size until fully half the tomato is destroyed. 
The diseased part is black and shrunken and generally extends 
square across the tomato from side to side. The warm, moist 
weather of summer appears to be particularly favorable to the devel- 
opment of this parasite. 

"Treatment: — Very thorough spraying with Bordeaux mixture or 
other copper compound is perhaps the best preventive. If possible a 
dry location should be selected for growing the plants, and the stems 
should be kept free from the ground." 

Onions. — A fine crop of onions can be grown on any soil that will 
produce a good crop of corn unless it be a stiff clay, very light sand 
or gravel, or certain varieties of muck or swamp lands, in which they 
invariably grow "necky," and cannot be made to ripen down well, 
while other muck soils give immense crops of the finest quality. The 
difference is generally, though not always, due to drainage. Muck 
lands must be sweet and well drained in order to raise good onions. 
Ordinary swamp land will not do, and even in the best of muck the 
first crop is apt to be soft and necky. 

"I always prefer a rich sandy loam, with a light mixture of clay," 
writes H. W. Buckbee, of Rockford, Illinois. "This is much better if 
it has been cultivated with hoed crops, kept clean of weeds and well 
manured for several years previous, because if a sufficient quantity of 
manure to raise an ordinary soil to a proper degree of fertility is 
applied at once, it is likely to make the onions soft. 

"There is no crop where a liberal use of manure is more essential 
than in this. Even on the deep black muck land of the great West 



384 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

manure is essential to a good crop, and not only is the quantity but 
the quality of the manure used of the greatest importance. If it is 
too rank it is sure to make soft onions with many scallions. It should 
be well fermented and shoveled over at least twice during the 
previous summer to kill weed seeds. Of course when it is not pos- 
sible to secure manure one must resort to commercial fertilizers. I 
prefer the ground bone to any other, but large crops are raised by 
the use of superphosphates. 

"Preparation of the soil is one of the main points. Remove all 
refuse of previous crops in time to complete the work before the 
ground freezes up and spread the composted manure evenly at the 
rate of twenty wagon loads per acre. This should first be cultivated 
in, and then the ground plowed a moderate depth, taking a narrow 
furrow in order to thoroughly mix the manure with the soil. Care- 
fully avoid tramping on the ground during the winter. 

"Cultivate or thoroughly drag the soil with a heavy harrow as 
early in the spring as it can be worked, and then in the opposite 
direction with a light one, after which the entire surface should be 
raked with steel hand rakes. It is impossible to cultivate the crop 
economically unless the rows are perfectly straight. To secure this, 
stretch a line along one side fourteen feet from the edge, and make a 
distinct mark along it; then having made a wooden marker, some- 
thing like a giant rake, with five teeth about a foot long and standing 
fourteen inches apart, make four more marks carefully drawing it 
with the outside tooth in, and the head at right angles to the 
perfectly straight mark made by the line. Continue to work around 
this line until on the third passage of the marker you reach the side of 
the field where you began; measure fifteen feet two inches from the 
last row, stretch the line again and mark around in the same way. 
This is better than to stretch a line along one side, as it is impossible 
to prevent the rows gradually becoming crooked, and by this plan we 
straighten them after every third passage of the marker. 

"Sowing the seed should be done as soon as the ground can be 
gotten ready, and can be done best by a hand seed drill. After trials 
of many seed drills I find the Iron King preferable. This should be 
adjusted carefully, testing it by running it over a board or cloth to 
sow the desired quantity of seed and about one-half inch deep. The 
quantity needed will vary with the soil, seed used and the kind of 



THE GARDEN 385 

onions desired. Thin seeding gives much larger onions than thick. 
Four to five pounds per acre is the usual quantity needed to grow 
large onions. 

"Give the onions the first hoeing, just skimming the ground 
between the rows, as soon as they can be seen the length of the row. 
We find the McGee cultivator the best by all odds. The hoes of this 
cultivator allow the earth to pass over the blades without moving it 
out of place. Hoe again in a few days, this time close up to the 
plants, after which weeding must be continued. This operation 
requires to be very carefully and thoroughly done. The weeder must 
work on his knees astride of the rows, stirring the earth around the 
plants in order to destroy any seeds that have just started. In ten 
days or two weeks they will require another hoeing or similar 
weeding to the last, and two weeks later give them still another 
hoeing, and if necessary another weeding. If the work has been 
thoroughly done at the proper time the crop will not require further 
care until ready to gather. 

"As soon as the tops die and fall the bulbs should be gathered 
in windrows. If the weather is fine they will need no attention 
while curing, but if it is not, they will need to be stirred by simply 
moving them slightly along the row. Cut off the tops when perfectly 
dry about half an inch from the bulb, then after a few days of bright 
weather the onions will be fit to store for the winter unless desired 
for immediate sale. 

"One of the most popular methods of keeping onions is to spread 
straw to the depth of eighteen inches upon the barn floor, scaffold or 
garret; upon this spread the onions six to ten inches deep and cover 
with two feet of straw. If in good condition and sufficient depth of 
covering is used, they will keep in fine condition till May. 

"A cool, dry cellar of some out-building, barn or carriage house 
will be found excellent for keeping onions if it has windows for venti- 
lation. The cellar of a dwelling house is usually too warm. They 
should be spread on scaffolds about six inches deep with room 
enough between the boards for the air to circulate. Upon approach 
of cold weather close the doors and windows and keep the tempera- 
ture just above the freezing point. With proper care they can be 
kept from freezing, and will come out nice and sound in the spring." 

Lima Beans. — Those most delicious members of the bean family 



386 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

are pretty badly neglected, usually because they require poles upori 
which to climb, and the preparation of one hundred or two hundred 
bean poles is no slight task for a busy farmer. It is a pretty good 
plan to select the poles in the winter and have them ready to set in 
the hills at the same time the beans are planted. When the crop is 
harvested the poles may be tied in compact bundles and put in a dry 
place for the next year, and it is surprising how long they will last. 
In case poles are not to be had on account of lack of proper timber, 
common plastering laths are very good substitutes. A good plan is to 
plant the beans in each hill at the corner of a square a foot across, 
putting one bean in each corner and sticking a lath down beside it. 
Then draw the tops of the laths together and tie them securely, 
making a pyramid when the vines have grown to the top. As the 
vines reach the top pinch them off, and they will bear just as many 
beans, throwing out side shoots to make up for the loss of the top. 
Some sorts are of short growth and do not make very long vines, 
while the dwarf Limas do not make vines at all and do not need poling. 

Limas should be soaked over night before being planted, and then 
set into the soil with the eye down, the beans standing on edge with 
covering an inch deep. They should be planted in very friable soil, 
as a little crust over the top will prevent them coming through the 
ground in proper shape to do well. 

Do not be afraid of getting soil too rich for Limas, and do not 
plant them until the soil is thoroughly warmed, as they are natives of 
a hot country and love plenty of hot sun from the time they come 
out of the ground. 

The Castor Bean has been known from the most ancient times. It 
has been found in Egyptian tombs more than 4,000 years old. It was 
known to the ancient Greeks, Romans and Hebrews. Some suppose 
it to be the plant that is spoken of in our translation of the Bible as 
the gourd. The Hebrews esteemed it as a source of lamp oil, but did 
not know of its medicinal qualities. In India, where it is a native, it 
is a perennial, but from long cultivation in colder climes it has 
become an annual. 

India and the United States are the largest producers of castor 
beans. There are numerous varieties, but the one known botanically 
as Ricinus Communis, or the common castor bean, is almost 
exclusively used. 



THE GARDEN 387 

Like all oil-bearing plants the product of oil is greatest where the 
weather is warmest; but the castor bean may be grown almost any 
place where maize will thrive. However, it is not profitable in the 
northern half of the corn-belt. Considerable quantities of beans are 
grown in Illinois, and the southern half of Missouri would probably 
'be warm enough to make it profitable. About forty-five per cent, of 
the weight of the seeds is oil in the northern limit of its profitable 
cultivation, while in the tropics as much as seventy per cent, of oil 
may be obtained. 

The castor bean requires a very deep and fertile soil, well supplied 
with nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, and unless it is planted in 
virgin soil the land must be well fertilized. The soil must be neither 
too light nor too heavy, too close nor too porous. A sandy or clay 
loam is best, and the soil must be deep, friable and well drained. 
The best corn land makes the best castor bean land. 

The castor bean may follow any clean crop, or it may be grown on 
the same land for several years providing enough fertilizers are used. 
A mixture made of 500 pounds of cotton seed meal, 1,000 pounds of 
stable manure, well fined, and 500 pounds of any good superphos- 
phate will contain all the elements demanded by the castor bean. Of 
this mixture from 1,000 to 3,000 pounds to the acre should be used, 
according to the richness of the soil and the amount of fertilizer used 
the previous year. 

Soak the seeds twelve hours in lukewarm water and plant two 
seeds in a hill, covering one-half inch, the hills to be six feet apart 
each way. When three or four inches high pull out the weaker of 
the two plants, leaving but one to grow. 

The castor bean will not stand deep cultivation or hilling up. 
Shallow surface cultivation is the only proper treatment, using such 
a cultivator as the Tower and finishing with hand hoes. 

As soon as the seed pods begin to turn brown the spikes are cut 
off and exposed in the sun until the seeds part freely from the pod. 
The different spikes ripen at different times, so the field must be gone 
over several times, gathering each time those in proper condition. 
The yield is from twenty to twenty-five bushels to the acre, and the 
crop is somewhat more profitable than corn at common prices. 

Rhubarb or Pie-plant. — "We are pleased to notice that the very valu- 
able culinary and medicinal vegetable known as rhubarb or pie-plant 



388 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

is coming to be generally cultivated," writes B. W. Jones, of Spotts- 
ville, Virginia. "Among all the fruits or vegetable crops for early 
spring there is none more deservedly esteemed than this. To say 
nothing of its medicinal uses, nothing of its place as an ornamental 
plant, and confining our remarks to its use as an edible alone, there is 
nothing that we are acquainted with — no fruit or vegetable — that 
surpasses it for pies, sauce, etc., for early spring. Coming on even 
before strawberries are ripe it excels that delectable fruit for tarts, 
flavoring and sauce. It surpasses the tomato in medicinal action on 
the system, and for its peculiarly agreeable sweetness and piquancy 
of flavor. Nothing makes a finer sauce when stewed alone, or 
imparts a richer touch to canned or dried fruit when used as a flavor- 
ing. A most delicate and agreeable cordial is made from it. And 
preserved with a liberal supply of its own sauce, or sirup, along with 
it, it makes excellent medicine for winter use, when one is suffering 
with cold, sore throat, influenza or any form of pulmonary disease. 
Every family garden should contain a bed of from fifty to a hundred 
plants of kitchen rhubarb, this number being ample for the largest 
demands of a large family. It may be raised from seed or from 
cuttings of the root. The cuttings grow as readily as an Irish potato, 
even pieces without any bud apparent taking root and growing. Far 
north it should be planted in the spring. At the south the sets can 
be put in the ground in November. 

"The place where the rhubarb is to be set should be deeply dug 
over and mixed with an abundance of fine manure. Then get roots 
and divide them to one or two eyes and set them with the tops an 
inch below the surface. They will not need to be reset for three or 
four years, and all the care necessary is to cover them with coarse 
manure in the fall and rake this away from the crowns in the spring. 

"Rhubarb may be grown from seed the same as other plants, but 
it takes two years for it to mature so as to furnish sauce in early 
spring. If seed is sown it is best to select Victoria, as it comes true 
from seed, while most varieties may or may not come true. Drill the 
seed in a row, and as the plants come up, thin them to four inches 
apart, and as soon as these begin to be crowded, set where they are 
to stand, giving each plant four feet of space. Keep the weeds down 
in spring until the leaves begin to shade the ground. If the plants 
are not taken up about once in four years they get root-bound, and 



THE GARDEN 389 

do not produce as large stalks as they will if taken up and divided so 
as to give each plant plenty of room." 

In regard to the growing of rhubarb, O. C. Burch, of Fairbury, 
Nebraska, writes as follows: "I have been successful in growing 
nice, large, juicy stalks by employing the following method: I grow 
plants from seeds, or divide large old roots. I dig a trench about 
two feet deep and two feet wide and about twenty feet long — the 
length can be regulated by the amount desired. A row twenty feet 
long will be sufficient for a large family and some to spare for the 
neighbors. I put in this trench about fifteen inches of well-rotted 
stable manure, or better yet, hen-house manure. Then fill the trench 
level with good rich soil. Then place in the trench one row of good, 
strong roots of a large variety, twenty to twenty-four inches apart. I 
cultivate and irrigate thoroughly." 

Fred W. Card, of the Rhode Island Experiment Station, offers 
the following means of indoor cultivation: "Can you spare two or 
three hills of rhubarb from the garden? There ought to be plenty 
there, so that they will not be missed. If so, go and dig up these 
hills, or even one large hill at the time when the ground freezes. 
Let it lie on top of the ground, exposed to the cold until thoroughly 
frozen, then take it to the cellar, banking a little moist earth around 
the roots. Some of the weaker crowns and roots may first be 
trimmed away, since they will not produce good stalks. If there is a 
furnace in the cellar, long before spring comes these hills will produce 
fine stalks. They will waste no energy in extra leaf surface; nearly 
all will be bright, crispy stalks. 

"If the cellar is too cold and they are slow in coming, a barrel 
may be set behind the kitchen stove, one hill placed in this and a 
canvas thrown over the top. If the appearance of a barrel in the 
kitchen is objectionable, a more pretentious cabinet may be made of 
lumber, which will answer the same purpose. Simply see that the 
soil is kept moist, and soon there will be rhubarb ready for the 
harvesting. That which remained in the cellar will be along a little 
ahead of that outside, even if the cellar is cool, r.nd in either case 
will repay the slight effort needed to get it." 

Asparagus. — At one side of every farm garden should be found a 
bed of asparagus and one of rhubarb. Asparagus and rhubarb both 
require about the same care in the way of heavy fertilization, and 



39° PRACTICAL RECIPES 

both remain in the ground for several years when once planted. 
Once established, all it is necessary to do is to work manure into the 
ground every spring and the crops will come with unfailing regularity. 

It is a mistake to set asparagus plants too deeply when they are 
put in their permanent places. It has been found that those set 
shallow not only produce as much asparagus, but that it matures 
earlier than that growing from deeply set plants. This is not only 
true for the first few seasons, but continues as long as the plants are 
in use. The vigor of the plant is the same in both cases, so there is 
no advantage in deep setting. 

Beginners are almost universally recommended to sow salt on the 
asparagus bed in the spring and work it in the soil that the plants 
may grow more thriftily and the "grass" more tender. A careful 
experiment along this line developed the fact that salt does not do 
any good, while the use of a little too much is injurious. Asparagus 
will stand any amount of manuring, and this is all that is necessary 
to produce the best crops. 

Horseradish. — This is so persistent that it sometimes comes to be 
regarded as a weed almost, and yet there are a good many farms on 
which it cannot be found. A few little roots stuck out in a waste 
corner will furnish a supply during an indefinite number of years. As 
a relish there is nothing better than horseradish. An old doctor 
once said, the man who ate plentifully of horseradish would escape 
many of the ills that come with warm weather to the man who works 
hard and is careless about his health. He said its good qualities 
were not at all appreciated as they should be, and that every family 
should have it on the table during the winter and spring. 

The Raising of Celery. — Every farm garden should produce enough 
celery for the use of the family during the winter. The great trouble 
about celery growing has been that farmers would not take the 
trouble to do the necessary work of banking up the plants, preferring 
to do without. The new system of making the soil very rich and 
setting the plants a foot apart each way dispenses with banking. In 
this system the soil is dug out for six inches over the entire plot to 
be set in celery. This leaves a depression, the bottom of which is 
dug and fertilized thoroughly. The plants are then set in at the 
proper time and allowed to grow without being banked up, and they 
soon cover the ground. Before severe frosts come the celery is dug 



THE GARDEN 391 

up and put in the cellar, the roots being set in garden soil on the cellar 
floor, and the plants set closely together. In the darkness of the 
cellar they soon blanch and become white and brittle and as good 
as any. 

If there is no cellar under the house the plants may be set in a 
trench in a dry place out of doors and carefully banked up with earth 
to keep them from the weather, where they will soon become fit for 
use. In taking up the celery, care should be exercised, as it must be 
taken up when the stalks are dry, or they will rot when packed 
together in the cellar or pit. To grow celery in this way is no more 
trouble than to grow potatoes, and enough for one family may be 
grown on a small plat. 

In Michigan, one of the greatest celery states of the country, the 
seed is sown about the last of May or first of June, favorite varieties 
being Golden Self-blanching and Giant Pascal. After the first of 
July celery requires special attention. Where it is too thick in the 
seed drills, thin it out and give sufficient room for that which remains 
to become sturdy if desired. 

The thinnings may be transplanted into frames with a north 
aspect, or some position where they will have a slight shade. If 
pricked off in a bed prepared of old manure and soil they will grow 
rapidly and make good plants for lifting with balls of earth after- 
wards. Where the plants are strong enough they may be planted 
for the early crop. If they are drawn out of the seedling bed the 
roots should be puddled, and they ought to get a little shade for a 
few days until they start to grow. In the case of plants that have 
been pricked off into a nursery bed they can be taken up with balls 
of earth and will suffer but little by the change. When the plants 
have started to grow, a top dressing of manure will be beneficial. 

For private gardens, and especially for early crops, and where the 
plants have to be transplanted, trenches are perhaps the best, as they 
give the grower the best chance of economizing water and keeping 
the plants cool and moist at the roots. The trenches may be dug out 
twelve inches in depth and sixteen or eighteen inches in breadth. 
Put three or four inches of good manure in the bottom and cover 
this with three inches of soil. It is more economical to plant a 
double row in the trench at about ten inches from row to row and 
six inches apart from plant to plant in the lines. The trenches may 



392 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

be three or four feet deep. The system commonly preferred for 

early celery is that of producing it in the seed drills. It would be 
hard to over-water celery during the summer weather. It should 
never be forgotten that water is the principal factor in successfully 
raising it. 

Pumpkins. — In the corn-field of a few years -ago the autumn 
revealed a crop of golden yellow pumpkins, but for some reason they 
are not so often seen of late. One cause for this is perhaps due to 
the fact that abetter understanding of agriculture has taught farmers 
that whatever goes to the crop of pumpkins is practically lost to the 
corn when the two are grown together. 

That pumpkins are a paying crop will not be disputed by anyone 
who has ever fed them to live stock. They are rich in sugar and 
contain elements that are most beneficial to animals, whether they 
be cattle, dairy cows, pigs or sheep, and they are so easy to raise that 
it seems strange that more of them are not grown. 

It is advisable to raise pumpkins in a lot by themselves instead of 
planting among corn in a field. They should be planted in hills eight 
feet apart each way and not more than three vines should be allowed 
to stand. It is well to plant a dozen seeds in each hill and let all 
the plants stand until danger from the cucumber beetle is past, after 
which they may be thinned. The land should be made rich with 
good manure and the cultivation should be such as will keep down 
weeds until the vines cover the ground, after which they will take 
care of themselves. 

Turnips. — While occasionally under favorable conditions a good 
crop of turnips may be grown by sowing as late as the middle of 
August, generally the best results will be secured by sowing not later 
than the middle of July. Have the soil in a good tilth and reason- 
ably rich, so that the plants may get a good start to grow before the 
weather gets too hot and dry. One advantage gained in raising 
turnips is that, if they cannot be eaten or sold to advantage, they can 
always be profitably fed to stock. 

Salsify, or Oyster-plant. — Salsify, or oyster-plant, as it is often called, 
is one of the most palatable vegetables grown if cooked properly. 
Comparatively little of it is grown, however, when we consider its 
excellent quality as a vegetable. Every garden, however, should have 
a row or two of it, so that those on the farm may enjoy oysters grown 



THE GARDEN 393 

right in their own garden. In early November salsify is harvested 
and stored away for winter, either in suspended crates or ventilated 
boxes in the cellar; it may also be buried in a pit the same as apples 
and potatoes. It may remain in the ground through the winter and 
in spring be suitable for table use; but it is much more satisfactory to 
dig it and store in a cellar where it can be used as wanted. 

Salsify belongs to the parsnip family, and is shaped much the 
same as that vegetable, growing like the beet, carrot, radish and 
parsnip, the seed being sown at the same time. A packet of seed 
will grow enough salsify to supply one family and may yield a surplus, 
as it is very easily grown and cultivated, nearly every tiny seed 
making a large tuber. 

Cultivation of Mushrooms. — In the northern and middle states of 
this country it is a necessity to utilize cellars for the culture of 
mushrooms. In the southern and Pacific states sheds above ground 
will answer the same purpose. 

Cellars built of brick should be given the preference, inasmuch as 
walls of brick and stone will enable us to better control the tempera- 
ture of the culture. The most satisfactory warmth is 68° Fahrenheit, 
though a variation between 6o° and 70° is within the limits of prac- 
ticability. The temperature of the manure beds may go as high as 
8o° without causing apprehension for the growth of the spawn. When 
sheds are in use it is advisable to apply to the lumber, boards and 
posts neither coal tar nor carbolineum, as local smelling oils easily 
and injuriously affect the microscopical mushroom spawn. Draught 
or any sudden change of temperature has also a damaging effect upon 
the young spawn. As to light, absolute darkness is not a neces- 
sity, a mild twilight being rather preferable. 

The shape of our beds may be made according to the disposal of 
space. If there is want of room make them in layers about twenty- 
eight inches apart upon wooden shelves, either entirely flat or with a 
slight incline, the width being adapted to a convenient cutting of the 
crop. The depth may vary from eighteen to twenty inches. "If 
space is plenty I recommend the French style of beds," says a recog- 
nized authority, "the base three feet wide, length as wanted, with a 
conical surface, height in the center about two feet ten inches, upper 
width two feet six inches. Such beds are best made upon even 
ground or in cellars upon cement or brick as the case may be. 



394 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

"The material for the beds must be fresh horse manure. Avoid 
all exposure to sun or rain. Pile to a height of about four feet, with 
a width of like dimensions. All coarse bedding is to be carefully sep- 
arated. To give the bed a firm consistency use the back of a spade 
freely and vigorously. After about ten days turn the bed — that is, 
tear down and rebuild — by using the inner manure for the outer 
coating and bring the outer cover to the center of the pile. This is 
to be renewed after a lapse of another ten days until a thermometer, 
introduced in the middle of the pile, indicates a heat of go° Fahren- 
heit. It is advisable to use the thermometer freely during the pro- 
cess of manure fermentation. A rise of the same to 150° will compel 
us to open the pile somewhat, so as to avoid an overheating and 
consequent burning of the bedding material. 

"An average of three weeks is generally sufficient to make the 
manure ready for the use of the beds. Bear in mind that during the 
process of fermentation, places which show a tendency to too much 
dryness have to be kept moist by slight applications of either water, 
or better yet, the regular manure secretion. If the manure turns out 
to be of a soapy consistency or affected with a moldy smell our work 
will have to be renewed with a fresh lot of material, as manure in the 
above condition is unfit for mushroom cultivation. Well-prepared 
manure is almost odorless. 

"We now put our ready material into the prepared beds of either 
cellar or shed. In purchasing the seed — spawn — we have the choice 
between the local and the imported English or French. The English 
spawn is in the market in the form of pressed bricks, as is most of 
the local. It is two inches thick by twelve inches and six inches in 
length. The French spawn is, as a rule, to be had loose in packages 
of four pounds. My own experience inclines me to give the French 
seed the preference, it being the more productive. If economy is a 
necessity, then the seed of the wild mushroom, gathered in season, 
will do as well. In the first month of the year a warm shower will 
greatly cause legions along the roadside to break the soil. 

"The characteristic feature of non-poisonous mushroom is the 
ease and even way with which one may loosen the skin. In seeding 
use pieces of about the size of a duck egg and about ten inches apart 
in holes three inches deep. 

"It is well to subject the spawn to a slight moistening eight days 



THE GARDEN 395 

before planting. Close all holes carefully and firmly after seeding 
and spread an inch layer of not too heavy soil over the beds. Try to 
keep as nearly as possible a temperature of 69° Fahrenheit in your 
cellar, and likewise keep a careful guard that your beds may not 
become too dry. 

"In about twenty days, more or less, you will see your spawn begin 
to penetrate the manure bed with a multitude of fine, snow-white 
fibrous roots. You will now add another inch layer of good soil 
firmly pressed upon your beds. After a lapse of a further twenty 
days or so the first mushrooms — so-called buttons — will begin to 
make their appearance. In cutting the mushrooms for market be 
careful to refill all openings with bed material, with as little disturb- 
ance of your growing spawn as possible. 

"A well prepared mushroom bed will retain its fertility from six 
to ten months. By applying once in a while a solution of saltpeter 
water, one ounce to about twelve quarts of tepid water, you will be 
enabled to continue your harvest for a considerable length of time." 

Salad Vegetables. — Besides the vegetables usually grown in the 
kitchen garden which are peculiarly suited for use in salad-making or 
garnishing, such as beets, tomatoes, lettuce, parsley, etc., a corner 
devoted to other plants, useful as greens or in salads, will add much 
to the enjoyment coming from growing one's own vegetables. Many 
of the sweet herbs, such as thyme, sweet basil, summer savory, and 
sweet marjoram, are used for seasoning, and may be grown in a very 
small space. 

Chervil, much used in salads, is grown like parsley. Soak the 
seeds for several hours in lukewarm water and sow early in shallow 
trenches a foot apart. As the plants grow, thin them out to four 
inches apart. The seeds of borage, the young leaves of which are 
used in salads or boiled like spinach, are sown at intervals of ten days 
from early spring, in light soil, and are transplanted when six weeks old 
to beds, setting the plants a foot apart. As the young leaves only are 
used, the soil must be good to induce a quick plant growth. Burnet, 
largely used in salads and soups, is readily grown in any soil by sow- 
ing in early spring in rows, thinning to four inches. Kohlrabi is 
easily grown in any good garden soil, and makes a delicious salad. 

Swiss chard is really a beet, but the leaves are superior to the 
ordinary garden beet leaves for salad purposes. Sow early, rows 



396 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

about a foot apart, and keep the ground free from weeds and well 
cultivated, which will increase the tenderness of the leaves. 

Spinach is popular both for boiled greens and as a salad, mixed 
with chervil, onions, if desired, and other vegetables. It should be 
sown early, in rows a foot apart, sowing the seed every two weeks, 
and as the plants grow, thin them out for use on the table. If the 
seed of the New Zealand variety is sown, the plants may be had for 
use all summer. 

Besides lettuce, which, of course, remains our mainstay for winter 
salads, have some cresses with which to add something of pungency 
and spicy flavor to the former. Ordinary cress and watercress come 
equally handy for this purpose, and both are easily grown. The 
ordinary cress may be grown in large flower-pots or in boxes, without 
much trouble. Fill the box or pot with rich soil, and sow seed rather 
thickly. In a few weeks you will have quite a picking, or rather 
cutting. Keep a few such pots or boxes growing, by sowing seed 
every week or so. 

SMALL FRUITS, OR BERRIES 

Fruits sometimes sell at a low price, and do not pay; but the same 
may be said of all crops. The farmer, however, is usually not a fruit- 
grower, except of apples; and strawberries, raspberries and black- 
berries are seldom cultivated. Whether grown for market or not, 
such fruits should be produced on every farm by way of variety and 
for home use. The luxuries can be produced more easily by farmers 
than can the regular crops of grain. It takes two or three acres of 
wheat to buy the produce that can be derived from a quarter of an 
acre of small fruits and vegetables. 

The Strawberry Bed. — Every farm should have its bed of straw- 
berries. There is no fruit at any season so timely and delicious as 
the strawberry, supplying at their season just the acid and fruit salts 
needed as we enter upon the hot weather. Prepare a plat, of any 
good corn land that drains quickly, for five or seven rows four feet 
apart, long enough to set one hundred plants in each row, two feet 
apart. Plant in April of each year in the order named: one hundred 
Michel's Early, a sexual; one hundred Bederwood, a bi-sexual; one 
hundred Brandywine, a bi-sexual; one hundred Marshall, a bi-sexual. 
Here, in the order named, are early, medium and late varieties, which, 



THE GARDEN 397 

in ordinary seasons, will give strawberries for a month, three times a 
day, for the table, and twice as many more to sell to your groceryman 
in exchange for groceries. 

Cultivate sufficient to keep down the weeds, allow the plants to fill 
the rows about eight inches wide; after the required width in the row 
is attained, cut away all runners, and late in the fall spread a light 
coat of well-rotted cowyard manure over the plat. After the ground 
has become frozen spread over the rows a thin layer of old bleached 
straw, and do not rake to the center until freezing or frosts are over 
in the spring. 

When the picking season is over, mow and rake the patch and 
cultivate thoroughly, and you will get a fair crop the next year; but 
don't forget to plant each year, in April, a new plat, taking strong 
vigorous runners from the last year's patch. For about three dollars 
you can get material for one thousand boxes, ready to tack together, 
which will supply you several years. 

If the strawberry bed, set last spring, has got the start of you, cul- 
tivate between the rows until the ground is as mellow as an ash heap 
and every weed dead. File your hoe, and go at the weeds in the row 
between plants. Limit the runners to four or five to the hill, or, if 
you want big berries, cut off and keep off every runner. Let no 
weeds grow, and manure with wood ashes, hen manure (in modera- 
tion), pig manure or sheep manure, as close to the hill as you dare. 
Remember that strawberry plants do not root deep or wide. The 
plant food you supply must be close and near the top. If you cut off 
all runners and depend on the main plant to bear fruit, you will get 
fine, big fruit, easily picked, and there will be nothing to prevent clean 
culture. In fact, the laziest way to grow strawberries is to plant 
three feet apart each way, cut off all runners, keep the bed clean by 
horse power, make it rich, and let it bear as long as plants are thrifty, 
four or five years probably. Too many runners and too much grass 
make small berries and weak plants. 

Planting of Potted Strawberry Plants. — Within a few years the plant- 
ing of potted strawberry plants has very largely increased, because 
they produce a full crop the next sprang after being set out in the fall. 
The method of producing them is to plunge the flower-pots, of the 
size florists call thumb pots, into the soil along a row of strawberry 
plants. These are filled with rich loam, and as the runners develop 



398 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

plants they are set over the sunken pots and a little soil drawn over 
them, so the roots that start out will grow in the little pot. When 
they are taken out the pots are taken with them, and they may be 
shipped a long distance and reset without feeling the shock of the 
change. This gives them a chance to make a large growth in the 
fall and be ready to produce a full crop the following season. They 
are usually sold at about five times the price of the ordinary plants, 
and they are worth the price, as the use of them saves a year's wait- 
ing and work. 

Raspberries. — The raspberry is one of our best and most easily 
grown berries, and new plantations should be started on every farm 
where a good patch does not already exist. 

The red varieties are liable to be winter killed. Their sprouting 
proclivity is another serious objection found to them by the average 
farmer who gives his berry patch little cultivation. By treating the 
sprouts as weeds, we find them very little trouble. Turner and 
Cuthbert are perhaps the best red varieties. 

The black-cap varieties are propagated from the tips, which, like 
all other nursery stock, should be planted in the spring as soon as the 
ground is in shape to work. The rows should be about seven feet 
apart, and the plants half as far apart in the rows. The ground 
should be fertile, deeply plowed, preferably in the fall, and thor- 
oughly loosened and pulverized before planting. The land should lie 
as level as possible, as it is very difficult to cultivate a berry patch on 
a side hill. 

A furrow may be opened and the tips set therein, or they may be 
planted in holes thrown open with a spade. The lower end of the 
roots should be about six inches deep, but only an inch or two of 
loose dirt should cover the sprout. The soil over the roots should be 
pressed down very firmly. 

Some say a tip will not grow if the sprout is broken off; but that 
is a mistake. Most of the tips sold by nurseries have the sprouts 
broken off, as it is almost impossible to handle them without breaking 
the sprouts, yet very often such tips are planted and grow well. A 
raspberry tip is a good deal like a potato in this respect, new sprouts 
taking the place of the ones broken off. Such mutilation is an 
injury, of course, and puts the plant back several days. 

Like all other fruits, the raspberry should have frequent shallow 



'fHE GARDEN 399 

cultivation throughout the growing season. A horse hoe and one 
section of a lever harrow are excellent implements for this purpose. 
Red raspberries are like blackberries in being deep rooted; but the 
roots of the black-caps run near the surface, and should not be dis- 
turbed by deep plowing. 

The Gregg has long been the standard black-cap raspberry, but 
has been largely supplanted by the Nemaha, as the latter is some- 
what hardier. The Older is also widely grown. The Souhegan and 
Palmer are too small to be of much account. The Kansas is 
undoubtedly the best black-cap, and has come to be most popular. 
It is perhaps the hardiest of all and, in quality, the best. It is a 
strong grower and the ripening season is short, two or three pickings 
taking most of the berries. 

There are some apparently good reasons in favor of the deep 
planting of raspberries. It is perfectly fair to infer that deep-set 
plants ought to suffer less from drouth, and that there should be less 
chance of their being blown by the wind. Of four hundred Palmer 
raspberries, one-half were set in furrows from four to six inches deep 
and covered with from two to three inches of soil, leaving the 
remainder of the furrow to be filled in gradually. 

Other rows were set shallow, the furrows being about as shallow 
as they could be made by the plow, probably not averaging more 
than two or three inches deep. It soon became evident that the 
shallow-set plants possessed an advantage. They appeared more 
vigorous and more of them lived. This advantage has been main- 
tained, especially from the fact that the stand was so poor in the case 
of the deep-set plants. This is not proof that shallow planting is 
always best. It is simply one instance under one set of conditions 
where it has given better results. 

These conditions are a climate unfavorable to the raspberry, and 
a soil mellow and rich at the surface, but closely underlaid with a 
hard and impervious subsoil. Deep planting naturally placed the 
roots in less congenial soil, the result being that, while apparently 
they should suffer less from drouth, they really suffered more. 

Pruning such fruits as the raspberry is really a process of thinning, 
and the only means used for that purpose. It is not that the plant 
derives any benefit from pruning; but that, if left to itself, it is likely 
to set more fruit than it can carry through properly to maturity. In a 



4 oo PRACTICAL RECIPES 

dry climate, with a deficient rainfall and excessive evaporation, pru- 
ning must be close in order that fruit may develop to the full size, and 
the grower must be content with a smaller yield, unless he has suffi- 
cient irrigation. 

The common practice with black raspberries is to pinch the young 
shoots soon after they start in the spring, when they have attained a 
height of eighteen inches or two feet. It is very essential that this 
be done while the plant is still young and when it reaches the desired 
height, because if allowed to grow higher and the top simply 
removed, the plant will be top-heavy and unsatisfactory. If much of 
the cane is cut away to bring it to the desired height there is a waste 
of growth, and the remaining buds are weak and slow to push forth 
branches. 

After the fruit has been harvested is the best time to give the 
raspberries necessary pruning. One of the first things to do is to cut 
out all of the old canes. It is this year's growth of cane that bears 
the fruit next year, and it is quite an item to secure a vigorous, 
thrifty growth. By cutting out the old canes more room is given, and 
the new canes can make a better growth. At the same time that the 
old canes are taken out, all of the small, weak or unthrifty ones 
should be pruned away. Three or four strong, vigorous canes will 
yield more and better fruit than two or three times that number of 
small and weak ones. All canes not wanted should be treated as 
weeds and managed accordingly. There is no advantage in allowing 
the canes that are left to grow too long. If the strength of the root 
can be thrown into one-half the length of cane, a better quality of 
fruit may be secured. The rich shoots may be treated in the same 
way. 

Four feet is as high as either raspberries or blackberries should 
be allowed to grow, and many good growers keep them pinched back 
to three feet. Thorough cultivation will help materially in securing 
abetter and more vigorous growth. It should be remembered, with 
all fruits, that very largely next year's crop of fruit is determined by 
this year's vigor of the plant, and it will pay to take considerable 
pains to secure a strong growth. 

Blackberries. — Once get a plat set to blackberries of the hardy sort 
and they will last indefinitely. There is hardly any bush that is so 
hard to exterminate as the blackberry and its cousin, the dewberry. 



THE GARDEN 401 

Blackberries are not very subject to disease, but spraying makes the 
health of the bushes secure and should not be neglected. The 
sprouts that come from the roots are usually the main seat of the 
trouble, but should not be, as the sprouts that spring up produce 
plants which bear the future crops of berries. By allowing the 
sprouts to grow and cutting out the old bushes, a blackberry patch 
constantly renews itself and never requires resetting. 

In reply to the question, "Do you know of any cultivator that can 
be made to run to one side of the horse so we can cultivate black- 
berries close to the bushes, without compelling the horse to walk so 
close?" R. M. Kellogg answers as follows: "I make breeches for my 
horses out of grain bags, by cutting them in two, one set for the fore 
and hind legs. I then put a 'siding' on the right side of the horse, 
and always keep this to the bushes; then nail a guard to the right 
handle of the cultivator, so it will raise the bushes up and pass them 
over the hand and arm, and we get along nicely. There being 'no 
land slide' to the cultivator to act as a rudder, it will follow the center 
of draft unless forced to one side by the 'Armstrong' method, which 
soon becomes somewhat wearisome. We spread our cultivators out, 
and go several times in the row if there be grassy spots." 

Gooseberries. — The spring of the year is about the time for goose- 
berry bushes to begin budding, and it is then appropriate to consider 
the subject of mildew. This is a parasitic plant, or fungus, which 
appears on the surface of the young fruit and young shoots. It pre- 
sents a frost-like appearance, being composed of glistening white 
threads. As it develops, the threads become more numerous and 
matted, lose their bright color and become a mass of brownish, felt- 
like substance. 

Chief among the kinds most susceptible to mildew is the Industry. 
Nearly all English varieties, however, and their seedlings are vic- 
tims of this fungus. The American sorts, while not absolutely 
exempt, or immune, are practically safe from injury from this source. 

Mildew will appear from about the middle of May to the middle 
of June. It very seriously injures the foliage and checks the growth 
of the berries. The attacks vary in point of severity, and if the dis- 
ease has not done considerable damage by the first of June there is 
not likely to be any further injury. 

There are several fungicides used for the prevention of this dis- 



402 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ease, and one of the most successful is that recommended by the New 
York State Experiment Station, the recipe for which is as follows: 
One ounce of potassium sulphide to three gallons of water, or one 
ounce to two gallons of water. The potassium sulphide will cost 
from eighteen to twenty-five cents per pound, and the cost of seven 
sprayings for each bush will be about one-fifth of one cent. Five or 
six sprayings are generally sufficient, oftentimes three will suffice. 

The solution may be applied with any good spraying apparatus. 
It is necessary to reach every part of the bush, and for this reason 
the sprayer should admit of thorough work with the least amount of 
inconvenience. 

GRAPE CULTURE 

The grape is so productive and bears so regularly that there is no 
sort of an excuse for the farmer who does not produce an abundance 
of this fruit. Its use is not confined to the time it is ripe and for the 
few days that the grapes can be kept stored. By selecting varieties 
that ripen at different times, and taking care to store them properly, 
the season of grapes may be extended from August i to the early 
winter. Mr. Augustine, of Normal, Illinois, told a farmers' institute 
how he enjoys grapes all the year round. He squeezes the juice 
from the ripe grapes and slowly brings it to the boiling point, and 
then cans it in common glass fruit jars. 

In this way the juice may be kept all the year without fermenting, 
and as the juice of grapes is about all there is to them, he has the 
good part of them in a concentrated form at any time in the year. 
After the season for grapes is past, this supply of juice makes a deli- 
cious and refreshing drink, better and more wholesome than any wine 
that can be made by spoiling the pure juice by fermenting it. The 
juice of the grape contains much nutriment, and no trace of alcohol, 
and nothing is more bracing to a tired man or woman than a glassful 
of it just before a meal on a hot day. 

Grapes now grow anywhere with little care. Trained to a garden 
fence, to the side of the house, or anywhere else where they can bask 
in the sun, a good crop may be expected every year. Even when a 
late frost kills the blossoms, the vine will make a new start and put 
forth new blossoms and bear a crop. 

Planting of Vineyards. — Plant grapes for vineyards in rows eight 



THE GARDEN 4 °3 

feet apart, and from six to eight feet apart in the row, according to 
the habit of growth of the variety. Dig holes about ten inches deep 
and large enough that the roots may be spread out naturally, without 
one root crossing another. In dry days it is better not to have many 
holes dug ahead of planting, as the earth will be moister if freshly 
dug. Put the finest and best earth at the bottom of the hole and 
among the roots, and the coarsest and poorest earth at top. 

While planting, care must be taken that the roots do not become 
dry. To prevent this it is customary to carry them about the field in 
a bucket or tub partly filled with water, after the tops are cut back to 
two or three buds. 

Cultivation and Pruning. — Always give good cultivation, and the 
first autumn cut back to four or six buds and cover the vine with 
earth. Unjover in the spring as soon as the frost is out, and after 
the buds start leave only the two best buds and rub off all the others 
as they appear. Let two canes grow the second year; they will prob- 
ably get to some five or eight feet long; if so, cut one of them back 
to three buds, and the other to within four feet of the ground, to 
bear. This severe pruning in their early youth, together with good 
culture, will give them such a good send-off that they will ever after 
bear you bountiful crops of their luscious fruit. 

How io Tell Fruit Buds from Wood Buds.— It should always be borne 
in mind that not all buds on the vine will produce fruiting branches 
next spring. There are fruit buds and wood buds. The former will 
produce shoots that may bear from one to several branches of fruit. 
The latter are not fruitful, but will produce simply wood growth. It 
is desirable, then, to be able to recognize the difference between fruit 
buds and wood buds. 

In a general way this difference may be determined by the loca- 
tion of the bud. Let us call the branches which grew last summer, 
and which have shed their leaves, canes. A cane which grew from 
one-year-old wood (wood one year older than itself), usually contains 
fruit buds, especially near its base, and it will be fruitful. A cane 
which grows from old (more than one year old) wood will not be 
fruitful. It will be observed that the buds on the fruitful canes are 
large, round and plump. The buds on these canes are also near 
together. Buds on the barren canes are smaller and are usually 
farther apart. Some growers call them long-jointed canes, It should 



4 o 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

be observed that a fruitful cane, which is produced from a branch 
that bore no fruit last summer, will be superior to one that grew from 
a branch which was bearing fruit. 

Having learned the difference between fruit buds and wood buds, 
then prune the vines according to the directions already given. 

Bagging the Ripening Grapes. — He who desires to produce the best 
grapes possible succeeds by bagging them at any time after they have 
formed. Usually they are put in bags when about half-grown, and 
allowed to remain in them until they are fully matured. The bags 
used are the ordinary manila paper bags of the grocer. These are 
slipped over the bunches of grapes and fastened with a fine wire, 
which is drawn just close enough to hold the bag secure, but not so 
closely that the stem will be pinched. The bottom corners are cut off 
to allow any moisture that may gather in the bag to escape and to 
allow air to get in. 

Putting the clusters in bags prevents fungus diseases of all kinds, 
and protects the fruit from the attack of insects. The grapes keep clean 
and free from dust, and the natural bloom remains in its perfection. 

It has been found that grapes ripen better when the leaves of the 
vine are allowed to shade them, than they do when the leaves are 
picked off, and they do even better when protected by bags. Every 
separate grape comes to full maturity, and the bunch is evenly and 
perfectly filled. The bags are not affected by rain, as it soon runs off, 
and they dry out as good as ever. It is but a small job to put bags 
over a few hundred bunches, and the bags can be bought very 
cheaply. The improvement in the fruit is very marked, and he who 
tries it will be well pleased with the result of his care. Those who 
contemplate showing grapes at the fairs should by all means bag 
enough for this purpose, as it is a perfectly legitimate way of improv- 
ing the appearance and quality of their exhibit. 

Propagating the Vines. — A very convenient way of propagating the 
grape vines is by layering. A vigorous branch should be selected, 
and after all its side growth is removed it is bent to the ground with 
the end over the spot where the new vine is desired. Here a hole 
six inches deep is dug; the vine is bent into it, and fastened in place 
with a forked stake or by laying a stone upon it, and then all but the 
terminal shoot is covered with soil. The shoot should then be tied 
to a stake. 



THE GARDEN 405 

After a year's growth the layer will be sufficiently rooted to admit 
of being cut loose from the parent vine. While this is a little more 
work, it is rather a better plan than making cuttings, when only a 
small number of plants are desired. 

MELONS 

A rich but sandy soil is best adapted to the growth of melons; if 
the soil is clayey, charcoal dust, sand or leaf mold may be mixed 
with it. New land is best for melons. Should they be slow in grow- 
ing, apply a small quantity of nitrate of soda around each hill, and 
chop it in with the hoe. 

One of the chief facts to remember, however, in the cultivation of 
melons is that they should be kept separate from all other fruits or 
vegetables, as they are of a very social disposition and like, above all 
things, to mix with other plants. First, therefore, select free, open 
ground for your melon patch. In cultivating, do not disturb the vines 
more than is absolutely necessary, as to do so retards growth and 
makes them produce smaller and later melons. 

Stimulating Northern Melons.— In the northern limits of melon 
culture it is desirable to so stimulate the plants that they will produce 
fruit as early as possible, and this may be done by constantly feeding 
the plants during the whole season. Nitrate of soda, where it can be 
got, is a good stimulant, and while it is a pretty costly way to supply 
the plants with nitrogen, it pays with as valuable a crop as melons. 
Stable manure spread over the surface of the soil and worked in is 
good, and it is hardly possible to overdo this kind of fertilization, 
especially if the plants can be watered freely. 

Fattening the Prize Melon. — Shrewd melon growers have a "secret" 
process of fattening their melons. When they see one of goodly 
proportions, they resort to a scheme of their own for increasing its 
corpulency. They procure a good-sized bottle, usually an old quinine 
bottle, and fill it with sugar-sweetened water, and, taking a darning- 
needle threaded with a cotton string, they pierce the stem of the 
melon, pull the end of the string to the aperture, put the other end 
through a cork, thence to the sweetened water (after having removed 
the needle) and then leave the melon to do the rest. 

In a very short time the wound heals, and then the melon will 
"drink" more sweetened water in a day than the average man. It 



4 o6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

begins to expand, too, and is soon the heavy-weight champion of the 
field. It remains in this comatose condition until fair time, when it 
wins the blue ribbon at easy bounds. 

Raising Gem Melons. — The following article was prepared from state- 
ments submitted by some of the most successful melon growers of 
southern Illinois. Gem melons are profitable and will do well up to 
the northern boundary line of Illinois. In raising them, select a piece 
of land with good natural drainage, a south slope preferred. Plow 
and prepare in best manner possible, pulverizing thoroughly and 
leveling down with a drag. This work should be done as soon as all 
danger from frost is over, say April 20 to May 5. Mark off with a 
Diamond plow in rows five feet apart, cross-mark four feet apart. 
This can be done with a cheaply constructed marker, which will mark 
two or three rows at a time. 

Drop about one quart of well-rotted manure in each cross-mark 
or hill. This manure should be thoroughly pulverized. This work 
can be done in early March. If well-rotted manure cannot be had, 
use fresh manure, but mix it in the hill so that the seed will not come 
in direct contact with the manure. Plant six or eight seeds to the 
hill and cover about one inch. In case the ground is very dry, cover 
a little deeper. 

The melons will be up in a few days. The striped bugs, which are 
so destructive to melons, cucumbers, etc., must be looked after. An 
application or two of air-slacked lime or wood ashes, with a little 
California insect-powder added, will generally destroy them. A con- 
venient way to apply this is to take a tin fruit can, nail a broom stick 
in it, pierce the bottom full of holes, and fill with either of the mix- 
tures named above. With this device a man can cover two rows at 
an ordinary walk, and finish forty-five acres in six to eight hours. 

As soon as the third leaf appears, work patch both ways, with 
either a small tooth cultivator or shovel plow; with a hoe scrape all 
weeds from the hill and draw some loose soil around the plant. 
Replant all missing hills and thin down to two or three plants in a 
hill. Continue both horse and hand cultivation until the vines cover 
the ground to such an extent as to make cultivation impossible. 

The important points are pure seed, thorough cultivation and 
earliness. Secure your seed from reliable sources and plant largely 
pure Netted Gem, or Rocky Ford Gem. Try a few of Paul Rose. 



THE GARDEN 407 

Watermelon Culture. — F. J. Merriam, of Battle Hill, Georgia, the 
great southern gardener and truck grower, who has made the work 
so profitable, writes as follows concerning watermelon culture: "To 
be successful with watermelons, the grower must first select the 
proper location. The land should be well drained, of a light, sandy 
texture, and naturally fertile. Freshly-cleaned land is a good place, 
or an old straw field which has lain out a number of years. We have 
also had good success on a pea-vine stubble, following in rotation 
with cotton, corn with peas sown between, followed by oats, with 
peas sown again after the oats, to be cut for hay, and to furnish the 
pea-vine stubble for our melons; then cotton again, and so on. In a 
four-year rotation like this, melons are less likely to suffer from that 
disease known as the southern blight. But even this far apart they 
are sometimes affected. Indeed, this matter is assuming very serious 
proportions, and a remedy for the wilt, or blight, is needed. 

"It seems that the Alabama Experiment Station is meeting with 
some success in checking the disease, by an application of lime to the 
affected land during the winter previous to planting. They are, I 
believe, continuing these experiments, the final result of which will 
be looked forward to with interest. It can, at any rate, do no harm 
to try lime at the rate of, say, forty bushels per acre; for when one 
has to find a fresh piece of land every year on which to plant his 
melons the land available for this purpose soon becomes exhausted. 

"After we have selected our location, the land should be well 
broken with a two-horse plow and worked down fine. Then lay off the 
rows ten feet apart with double mold-board plow, going twice in the 
row, and running as deep as possible. A little dab of manure in 
the hill is not enough for melons; they need lots of fertilizer, and 
they need it spread out for a considerable distance from the center of 
the hill; for as long as the roots can reach out and find fresh fields to 
conquer, the vines will continue to grow. Everyone, however, is not 
able to obtain manure or compost for his melons; especially is this 
true with the large grower, and guano, if properly applied, can be 
made to answer very nicely. The main advantage with compost, 
when put deep in the ground, is that it holds more moisture for the 
crop during a drouth. 

"A fertilizer for melons should contain about the following pro- 
portions of materials: ammonia, 5 per cent.; phosphoric acid, 6 per 



4 o8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

cent., and potash, 7 per cent., used at the rate of not less than 500 
pounds per acre. Instead of that, the following may be used: Take 
nitrate of soda, 200 pounds; cottonseed meal, 700 pounds; acid phos- 
phate, 840 pounds, and muriate of potash, 260 pounds, to make a ton — 
or tankage (9 per cent.), 625 pounds; bone meal, 1,100 pounds; and 
muriate of potash, 275 pounds, will also make a fertilizer with the 
proper analysis." 

TREES, LAWN, SHRUBS AND FLOWERS 

The trees and shrubs may be called the frame, or setting, of the 
flower-bed, and the lawn is often its background. Their proper care 
is therefore the subject which is first taken up. 

Evergreen Trees are especially valuable for screens, for windbreaks, 
or for a background against which to group trees with highly-colored 
leaves or branches, and for winter decoration. Too many should not 
be used together near the farm buildings, as they give a dark effect 
and often present an unhealthy appearance. 

The best time to plant evergreen trees is in the spring, during 
April or May, just when the buds are ready to push; or, if fall plant- 
ing is preferred, it should be done in October or November. Great 
care must be taken that the roots do not become dry by exposure to 
sun and wind. It is best to select, for their removal, a moist day. 

Austrian Pine (Pinus Austriaca) is of a compact growth; it is cone- 
shaped with a broad base. The leaves are dark green and nearly six 
inches long. The branches are equal around the tree and well dis- 
tributed. They need plenty of room for good development. This 
tree can be most safely removed when not more than three feet high. 

Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) is one of the hardiest and most 
easily grown evergreens; but the principal objection to this tree is 
that it is often badly attacked by the fungus (Gymnosporangium 
Macropus), which spoils much of its attractions. 

Scotch Pine (Pinus Sylvestris) is of more open, spreading growth 
than the Austrian pine. The branches and foliage are not so heavy, 
and the leaves are of a lighter green. The Scotch pine grows quite 
rapidly, and if carefully handled can be reared with very good suc- 
cess. 

Dwarf Pine (Pinus Montana). — This tree forms a low, broad, dense 
growth. The trunk is divided at the base into several ascending 



THE GARDEN 409 

smooth branches. The leaves are dark green. This tree grows quite 
readily when transplanted, and it is considered one of the best for 
hot and dry locations. 

White Spruce (Pices Alba) is a very good evergreen. Its growth is 
slow, but neat and symmetrical. It sometimes attempts to grow two 
leaders, but this can be easily prevented by pruning. The foliage is 
light green. It thrives on a variety of soils. 

Colorado Blue Spruce (Pices Pungens). This tree is fully as 
hardy, and even more beautiful than the white spruce. It is noted 
for its handsome blue-green foliage. The tree is of moderate growth, 
of rather a regular and compact form. It needs but little pruning, 
and retains its pleasing color during the entire year. It is compara- 
tively easy to transplant. 

Care of the Lawn. — Nothing is prettier than a lawn well set with a 
thick turf and kept nicely clipped. Most people in mowing a lawn 
make the mistake of cutting the grass too closely, setting the lawn 
mower as low as possible. The mower should be set high, and the 
grass clipped every week. The clippings should not be raked off, 
but left to wither and fall among the blades as a mulch for the roots 
and a fertilizer for the soil. When this is done, it makes a soft, 
yielding surface, like a thick carpet, which the ideal lawn turf should 
resemble. 

Sometimes a lawn turns brown and refuses to grow well. In such 
cases sprinkle with a moderate dressing of wood ashes and after the 
next rain put on a thin dressing of very fine manure, raking it down 
among the grass. Better than this is a dressing of nitrate of soda, 
which will cause the grass to spring up almost at once, and in a few 
days it will be a thing of beauty. 

Seed Box for Flowers. — An excellent box in which the seeds for 
early flowers can be sown is about eighteen inches long, fifteen 
inches wide and three and one-half inches deep. This box can be 
placed in the window beside the cutting box. A good soil for the 
seed box is made of three-fourths soddy loam and one-fourth sand; 
this mixture gives a soil that drains well and does not run together 
after it has been watered a few times. 

In this box can be sown pansy, verbena, petunia, snapdragon, 
sweet alyssum, salvia splendens, or seeds of any other familiar plant 
that will stand transplanting and is desired for early blooming. 



4 io PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Enough plants can be grown in a box of this size to supply a good- 
sized flower garden. 

When the calla lily begins to bloom, if the pots are placed in shal- 
low pans of water and left there, the blooms will be found to last 
much longer and remain more plump and fresh than where water is 
simply applied to the surface of the soil. 

How to Grow Cuttings. — The cuttings of many of the plants to be 
used in the flower garden should be rooted during the months of 
February or March. Geranium cuttings made during these months 
should be covered with blooms during the summer months if they are 
given proper care. 

Other plants that add greatly to the beauty of the garden, which 
may be propagated by cuttings, are the Coleus, Iresine, Altherman- 
thera, and Centaura. These plants all root readily from cuttings. 
They can be started in a cutting box in the window, which should be 
as long and wide as desired, for the limited space, and about four or 
five inches deep. It should be filled with clean river sand. When 
the cuttings are first made they should be shaded during the heat of 
the day, and sprinkled several times a day until the cuttings become 
thoroughly established. The sand should always be kept moist, but 
never wet. 

Cuttings are often rooted in a deep plate filled with moist sand. 
There are various contrivances used for rooting cuttings, but in each 
case the rooting medium is clean, moist sand. Soil is apt to become 
soggy. 

Layering Flowering Shrubs.— Layering plants is one way of propa- 
gating such flowering shrubs as roses, lilacs and snowballs. To do 
this properly work the surface of the soil around the parent stock 
until it is fine. Then carefully bend down a branch until it lies on 
the surface, holding it in position by driving small stakes across it. 
Repeat the operation until all the branches that are to be laid down 
are in position, and then cover the portion laid down with six inches 
of soil, leaving two or three of the buds nearest the tip exposed. Let 
these lie in position until next spring, then cut free from the parent 
and take up, when a bunch of roots will be found to have formed on 
that part of the branch which was covered. 

Wall Creepers. — One of the best wall creepers for a permanent 
cover is Ampelopsis Veitchli, but the flower of it is insignificant and 



THE GARDEN 411 

odorless. This fastens itself as it rises, and, as its "foot stalks" 
absorb the moisture from the surface to which they are attached, the 
wall will be drier thus covered than without. 

The various sorts of honeysuckle are fragrant, but must have sup- 
port. The objection to them is in the trimming out required. A 
crimson rambler rose once started would soon cover the wall and be 
a thing of beauty for at least a month during the summer, but, like 
others of the climbing roses, would need support. So also the 
wistaria, the clematis and the Aristolochia Sypho. 

The Madeira vine grows quickly, and when in bloom in autumn is 
very fragrant, but its leaves become spotted and break easily, and it 
dies down in winter. 

For annuals nothing can exceed the Cobea Scandens for rapid 
growth and large handsome flowers. One plant, bought for a dime 
in June, covered one corner and up the roof to the peak of a story 
and a half house, remaining green and covered with flowers until 
November. The moon vine, morning glories, and a host of others, 
are acceptable, but are annuals and must have a support. 

GINSENG AND PEANUTS 

In various sections of the United States ginseng, the famous 
Chinese and Korean medical root, is being cultivated with more or 
less success. The Ozark region of southern Missouri, as well as 
southern Illinois, are said to be especially adapted to its cultivation. 
New York and Cincinnati are the chief exporters of ginseng, and 
those cities take a large percentage of the American crop. 

The root, which is of commercial importance, consists of two 
parts: the root stalk and root proper. The former, not more than 
one-third of an inch in diameter, shows scars that indicate one year's 
growth, the same as the fiber rings on a stump indicate the age of the 
tree. When young, the roots resemble little parsnips, becoming 
forked and darker in color as they grow older. Cultivated roots 
weigh from one-half to three-quarters of a pound. 

"From five to eight years are required for the development of 
profitable ginseng," according to the editor of the Farmer s Voice. 
"Apple orchards require a similar period, and hence it is that some 
ginseng advocates are claiming that if orcharding is profitable, gin- 



4 i2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

seng growing is doubly profitable. The seeds of the plant are sown 
in the spring after danger of frost is over, and by the following fall 
small roots will be formed, which will bear seed the following year. 
Roots for setting out are dug in September and October and planted 
at the same time where desired. On one point information is rather 
unsatisfactory; from what we can find out, the roots should be set in 
a rather shady place, protected from hot sunshine. Moisture is one 
of the essentials to successful ginseng growing. If nature does not 
supply it, the grower must secure artificial assistance. The roots 
grow very slowly, and are not marketable until five or six years old. 
The bed in which the seeds are planted should be long and narrow 
and inclosed by a high board-fence — high enough to afford protection 
from the sun. No grower of the plant advises one to engage in the 
business on a large scale unless he thoroughly understands it and has 
ample capital to bridge over probable losses. The wisest plan seems 
to be the sowing of seed in the spring. Seed may be purchased at a 
fair price from propagators in several sections of the country." 

If you desire to cultivate peanuts, plant them about the first of 
May, or as soon as the ground gets warm, in rich, sandy loam. Get 
the raw nuts. Either Red Cross or Little Spanish is preferable. 
Take the kernels from the pod, but leave the thin brown covering 
unbroken on the kernel. Plant in rows three feet apart, and eighteen 
inches apart in the rows, two kernels in a hill. Keep free from 
weeds by level cultivation until the vines are about eight or ten 
inches high, when they will bloom profusely with a small yellow 
flower. Now draw loose dirt up on both sides of the row, close to 
the vines, but do not cover up the blossom. Soon you will see a 
rootlet leave the blossoms and run down into the mellow soil, on 
which will grow the nuts. Continue to draw the dirt up to the plants 
as long as they bloom. Then keep free from weeds. Let stand until 
about the first of October. Then run a potato fork under the hill, 
and by taking hold of the top the vine can easily be taken from the 
ground with the nuts hanging to the roots. Let them lie in the sun 
for one day; then put them in a shed or hang on poles in a dry place 
for about three weeks before taking the nuts from the vines, so that 
the substance in the green vines will ripen and mature the nuts. At 
the end of this time they will be cured, and may be taken from the 
vines and spread on the floor to cure sufficiently to sack. 



THE GARDEN 413 



INSECT PESTS 



It is the neglected garden that is eaten up by insects. This seems 
a very natural proposition, but the point that we want to make is that 
insects are kept in subjection more easily when the garden is kept 
clean than they can be when weeds and grass are allowed to grow to 
furnish harbors and hiding places for them. As a rule, insects do not 
like to travel over a soil that is kept cultivated until it is as fine as 
dust. They prefer to work where they have a solid foundation, such 
as a soil the surface of which is beaten hard and smooth by rain. 
Where the garden is kept stirred and turned over by constant culti- 
vation, they usually seek some quieter spot. For this reason the best 
way to keep the garden free from insect pests is frequent and thor- 
ough cultivation. 

During recent years the insect enemies of garden crops have 
become much more numerous than formerly, largely on account of 
the ravages of imported varieties, which seem to thrive in their new 
environment, and this makes a knowledge of how to meet these new 
enemies absolutely necessary to the greatest success. 

The best way to begin is to give the various garden crops the 
best possible chance by providing good soil, proper plant food and 
cultivation, that they may grow up vigorous and better able to resist 
destruction from insect pests. Without these the crop will not be 
worth the trouble of preventing attack from these destroyers. After 
these precautions come watchfulness and prompt attention to 
remedial measures. 

Fatal io AH Insects. — The following is recommended by a practical 
gardener as an insecticide: Take the leaves and stems of the tomato 
plant and boil them in water until the juice is all extracted. When 
the liquid is cold, it is to be sprinkled over the plants attacked 
with insects, when it at once destroys caterpillars, black and green 
flies, gnats, lice, and other enemies to vegetation, and in no way 
impairs the growth of the plants. A peculiar odor remains and pre- 
vents the insects from coming again for a long time. 

Saltpeter for Bugs on Vegetables. — Saltpeter is destructive to insect 
life on vegetables. To destroy bugs on squashes and cucumber vines 
dissolve a tablespoonful of saltpeter in a pail of water, put a pint of 
it around each hill, hollowing out the earth around the stem of the 



4i4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

vine, so that it will not spread. Twice as much of the liquid applied 
to peach trees will kill grubs there. 

Lice and Scale on Plants. — Crude petroleum and castor oil in equal 
parts, daubed on the leaves and stem of a rose bush covered with 
scale or rose-bugs, will destroy the pest and leave the bush in good 
condition. 

Kerosene will destroy lice on plants. It should be spread onto 
the under side of the leaves, the stem and all parts of the plant, with 
an ordinary small atomizer. 

Steep tobacco in water and when the liquid is lukewarm, sprinkle 
plants infested with green lice. A few applications will make them 
entirely free of the pest. The natural dried leaf of tobacco, one leaf 
to a quart of water, is recommended, but any tobacco will do. This 
will not injure the most delicate plant. 

Hellebore Powder as an Insecticide. — "Having learned that white 
hellebore powder is death to insects," writes W. Whitworth, of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, "when I laid out my little flower garden some ten years 
ago, I bought a pound and began operations on a few choice remon- 
tant roses I had set out. Believing that prevention is better than 
cure, I gave the first dose with the earliest leaves of spring. I mixed 
one heaping tablespoonful of the powder in a pail of water, with two 
spoonfuls of coal oil by way of good weight. This I sprinkled over 
the tops of the plants by means of an ordinary watering-pot — only 
that I had the nose made flat instead of rounding, as is the usual 
style, so as to concentrate the flow of water, in place of being spread 
out into a wide extent of straggling spray that has little or no prac- 
tical value. This I repeated once each two weeks, and with such 
good results that no marauding insect has ever appeared on the 
bushes, albeit the roses all round about are literally 'skinned alive' 
with the insect pests that devour them. 

"But this has not been all. During a great many years I had 
observed that by the middle of summer the limbs of currant bushes 
were stripped of their leaves, so that nothing was to be seen but 
unsightly bare limbs. So I gave my two currant bushes a like dose 
with the roses; and, to my delight, with like happy results. Not a 
leaf became discolored or dropped off till Jack Frost got in his legiti- 
mate work in the fall. And during the eight recurring seasons there 
has been no change from this." 



THE GARDEN 4 i S 

The Toad as an Insecticide. — To most people a toad is nothing but 
an unsightly reptile which is to be shunned as much as possible. The 
superstitious think it venomous, but it is not. 

The toad is not only harmless, but is of great use to the gardener, 
as every worm or insect that comes within reach is devoured greedily. 
Centipedes, caterpillars, blister beetles and bugs of every kind are 
equally welcomed by the toad. He uses them all alike. They wan- 
der within reach of his long, glutinous tongue, which flashes out so 
quickly that the eye cannot detect it, and the victim is gone. The 
toad swallows once or twice, winks his round eyes placidly, seems to 
smile and is ready for as many more of the same kind as come his 
way. Half a dozen toads in a garden will keep it free from most of 
the ordinary garden pests. They are easily tamed, and spend the 
day in some shaded nook along the fence, or under a cabbage leaf, 
coming sedately forth at night to find their food. Where the good 
qualities of the toad are understood he is always a welcome visitor, 
and his stay is made as pleasant as possible. 

Potato Bugs. — Paris green kills potato bugs in a very short time. 
Most people use the mixture too strong. Two ounces to fifty gallons 
of water is effectual if the mixture is kept constantly stirred. 

An expeditious way to get rid of a great many potato bugs is to 
watch for the first appearance of the old ones that lay the eggs from 
which the new crop is hatched. These appear early in the season 
and eat little, but they lay the eggs for the brood that destroys the 
crop. To kill these is to destroy a generation which will follow 
if they are not destroyed. The quickest way to dispose of these old 
bugs is to hand-pick them from the vines, and drop them into a 
vessel which contains water and kerosene oil. A small tin bucket, or 
even an old tin can, half full of water, in which a few spoonfuls of 
kerosene has been poured, will very effectively quiet them, and it is 
comparatively easy to get most of them. 

Some farmers sprinkle the seed, before putting in the ground, with 
sulphur. "If one has already planted without knowing this," writes 
A A. Watkins, of Warren County, North Carolina, "get a teaspoon- 
ful of Paris green, mix it in a pint of flour, and put the mixture in a 
quart tin cup; stir well, and tie a piece of cheese cloth over the top. 
In the evening, when the potatoes commence coming up, dust a small 
quantity over every sprout that has come up that day. Go over the 



4 i6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

next evening, dusting every new sprout, until they all come up. If 
one happens to escape, as soon as the small ones make their appear- 
ance dust them a little and you will have no more trouble." 

The Cabbage Worm. — To destroy the green cabbage worm: pmver- 
ized resin, five pounds; concentrated lye, one pound; fish oil, one 
pint; water, five gallons. Place oil, resin and a gallon of water in an 
iron pot and heat until the resin is softened; add lye solution as for 
making hard soap, and stir well; then add rest of water and boil for 
about two hours, or until the mixture will unite with cold water, 
making a clear liquid. For use, one gallon of this solution is diluted 
with sixteen gallons of water, and afterwards three gallons of white- 
wash is added. To this add one-fourth pound of Paris green and stir 
in. Put on with a good hand sprayer; it stays and does its work 
thoroughly. The use of this compound on a ten-acre field is esti- 
mated to cost about two dollars per acre. 

Another recipe: Take common Persian insect powder, being sure 
to get that which is fresh, and put it into a common powder gun, or 
in the absence of that, a pepper box with a perforated top, and early 
in the morning sprinkle a little of the powder over the inside of the 
leaves on the worms that are at work. In five minutes every worm 
that is touched will be dead, and a few such treatments are all that is 
necessary in a season. The insect powder is not poisonous to any- 
thing but insects, and may be used with safety. 

Striped Cucumber Bugs are about the hardest to deal with. They 
come in a night and destroy the vines in a day. Usually they send a 
scattering advance guard, which should be the warning, for thou- 
sands are certain to follow. Mix five pounds of air-slacked lime and 
a quarter of an ounce of Paris green very thoroughly and dust the 
leaves with this while the dew is on in the morning. Do this before 
the bugs come, and repeat occasionally until danger is past, which 
will be the last of June usually, although they sometimes come later. 
Do not leave any clods around the hills. Make the surface smooth, 
so there will be no hiding place for the bugs, and sprinkle the 
mixture on the ground pretty freely. Soot from a chimney where 
wood is used is good, and some drive them away with road dust 
sprinkled freely on the leaves, as they seem not to like grit. Be sure 
to get the remedy, whatever is used, on the under side of the leaves, 
as there is where they feed. 



THE GARDEN 417 

Squash Borers are becoming worse every year, seemingly, and in 
some sections they have made it almost impossible to grow squashes. 
They work in the vines, beginning at the roots. The eggs are laid, 
early in the spring, on the stems just where they come from the 
ground, and the borer hatches and works inside. The lime and Paris 
green will be a good thing to use early in the season, and as the vines 
begin to grow hoe the soil over the crown where the vines come 
from the ground. As the vines make growth, cover every second 
joint with soil to the depth of two inches, and roots will strike into the 
soil almost at once, adding vigor to the vine, even keeping it growing 
when the borers succeed in getting into it. If the vine begins to 
droop, split it open with a sharp, thin knife and find the borer, and 
kill it. Then cover with soil, and it will usually revive and grow 
without injury. 

Leaf Hopper, Thrip and Erythroneura Vilis are all different names for 
the one small insect which is often numerous on the grape vines 
during summer. They are about one-eighth of an inch long, of a light 
color and marked by three dark red bands. They fly from their 
position, on the under side of he leaves, when the vines are shaken, 
and soon light again. 

To combat them in the summer, when their destructive work is 
noticeable, is difficult. The early spring is the best time. They may 
be found under the leaves near the vines. If the vineyard is cleaned 
of all litter, and this promptly burned, many will be destroyed. The 
insects remaining on the ground can be killed by a spray of coal oil 
solution. 

Cutworms are hard to catch, as they keep hidden during the day. 
Usually they do but little damage if the garden is plowed very early 
in the spring, and allowed to freeze and thaw a few times. A good 
way to kill them is to sprinkle Paris green on slices of potatoes and 
lay these pieces near freshly set out plants. 

How to Destroy the Mole. — "Some people claim to believe that 
moles are a greater benefit than an injury, for the reason that they 
are almost wholly insectivorous in their diet. This I dispute," says 
Bryan Tyson, of Hullison, North Carolina. "A mole will destroy seed 
corn after it has been anointed with tar from the southern pitch 
pines, while every other known animal and fowl, including crows, will 
pass it by. I think the great majority of farmers will favor their 



4 i8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

extermination. I therefore submit the following cheap and effective 
plan. Mix a quantity (no particular rule) of arsenic with corn dough, 
make a small hole into their roads here and there, and deposit a 
lump of dough in each about the size of a marble. Cover the holes 
with any convenient substance, such as clods of dirt, to exclude the 
light. 

"Some years ago I had a piece of land badly infested with moles, 
that I wished to plant to sweet potatoes. Success depended on first 
getting rid of the moles. As a matter of experiment I concluded to 
try corn dough and arsenic, as above, and two applications resulted 
in a virtual extermination. Some of the moles came out of the 
ground and soon after died. Other poisons may answer as well, but 
I know that arsenic can be relied on. The best time to apply is per- 
haps in early spring, soon after the moles leave their winter quarters." 



CHAPTER XV 

THE ORCHARD 

Plowing and Fertilizing — Transplanting — Forcing the Blossoms and Fruit — 
Girdling and Pruning — The Apple Orchard and Its Care — Grafting the 
Old Tree* — Picking, Packing, and Storing the Fruit— The Peach Orchard 
and How to Cultivate It — Plums, Pears and Cherries — Save the Birds — 
Enemies of the Orchard and How to Exterminate Them — Black Ants, 
Borers, Peach-leaf Curl, Black-knot Fungus, Curculio, Codlin Moth, Tent 
Caterpillar, Rabbits and Ground Mice. 

The man who is going to plant a field to corn always takes consid- 
erable pains to properly prepare the land for the crop, although it is 
one that will be matured within four months. The man who is con- 
templating setting out an orchard very often makes no preparation 
at all, being content to set the trees in soil that has not been touched 
until the time comes to dig the holes and dump the trees in. An 
orchard must be cultivated. It is in fact a garden — a fruit garden — 
and must be treated as such. 

In the beginning it is very important to select suitable varieties, 
such as are adapted to the climate and the soil. As to a list of vari- 
eties this is best made up by a careful study of the best orchard in 
one's own neighborhood. It is a hard struggle with nature, with 
certain defeat at last when one errs in this particular. Before buying 
his trees the amateur planter always will act wisely in consulting 
honest men of experience. 

Plowing the Orchard. — The manner in which too many farmers 
plow their orchards, when they plow them at all, accounts in large 
measure for partial fruit failures and unsatisfactory growth of trees. 
It were better not to plow up the orchard, particularly if the trees 
have not reached full bearing age, than recklessly go through it in 
the spring with a deep-set plow and tear out roots by the wholesale. 
There wouldn't be so much damage done if the plow were not run 
so close to the trees. 

419 



420 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

The effect of such unwise treatment of fruit trees is to check wood 
growth and encourage an abnormal production of fruit. Then the 
reaction comes, and the trees seem unwilling either to produce fruit 
or develop wood. 

Generally speaking an orchard should be plowed not more than 
once in five years. And it should not be deep, nor should the earth 
be plowed up near the trees; they should occupy an unplowed strip 
twenty feet wide or more, depending upon their age and consequent 
root development. 

The orchard never should be permitted to become foul or infested 
with weeds. Disking early in the spring should be followed by peri- 
odical harrowings through the summer months and until time for 
sowing a cover crop, such as rye or vetch. 

Fertilizing with Manure. — Fertility is the basis of all successful 
production from the soil. This is true of fruits as well as of other 
crops. In a majority of cases a rich soil can be secured in the 
orchard only by manuring, and early spring is a good time to haul 
out and apply the manure. It can be scattered broadcast all over 
the surface, and will soak in as soon as the condition of the soil will 
permit. There is little if any danger of getting that soil in the 
orchard too rich. 

Ashes Help Growth of Young Trees. — It has been found a very 
beneficial practice to sprinkle a bushel or two of wood ashes about 
the roots of young trees. This may be done about the last of May, a 
little earth being removed from around the base of the trees and the 
space filled in with ashes. Because of the alkali which they contain 
they drive away numerous insects and fungi. Moreover, they furnish 
a valuable fertilizing material, decomposing and forming potassium 
carbonate, which is in time, after further decomposition, appropriated 
by the trees. All kinds of ashes may be used to advantage among 
fruit trees, which demand a large supply of potash. 

Commercial Fertilizers. — If the orchard is on rich and naturally 
fertile soil the chances are that its greatest need will be potash. The 
phosphoric acid in the soil will not be exhausted as quickly as will 
the potash, and the necessary amount of nitrogen maybe maintained 
by growing clover on the land. In some experiments at the New 
Jersey station it was found that commercial fertilizers were much 
cheaper for peach trees than barn-yard manure. Professor Voorhees 



THE ORCHARD 421 

recommends for apple trees a mixture of one hundred pounds each 
of ground bone, acid phosphate and muriate of potash to be applied 
early in the spring at the rate of four hundred pounds of the 
mixture to the acre. This mixture contains very little nitrogen, but 
is rich in potash and phosphoric acid. The nitrogen would be 
furnished by plowing under a crop of clover quite early in the spring, 
having first sown the fertilizer in order to have it plowed under 
where the roots of the trees could get at it. 

Peach trees, being shorter lived than apple trees, should be 
treated with a fertilizer somewhat different in its composition. For 
this purpose nitrogen should be added, as it is from nitrogen that 
leaf growth comes to a large extent. 

In any case no growing crop should be allowed to stand in the 
orchard during all the season, as the roots of the crop use the plant 
food that should be left for the use of the trees, and the moisture in 
the soil is all needed by the growing trees. Where clover is grown it 
should be plowed under before the middle of May. 

Transplanting into Trenches. — Trenches should be constructed at 
proper distances apart according to the kind of tree to be grown; 
they may be two and a half feet deep, three feet broad on the bottom 
and four feet at top; they may be constructed with a plow and 
shovel. 

The trenches, except spaces of about five feet at proper distances 
apart, should be filled to within six inches of the top with green round 
timber, bark on. Red oak, white oak or hickory will be good; any 
wood considered better than pine. The trenches should then be 
filled with soil, which will cover the logs to the depth of about six 
inches. The spaces will indicate the distances apart the trees will 
stand in the trenches. They are to be properly filled with soil, to 
which well rotted chip manure, or other suitable material, may be 
added. Thus arranged, the trees can become sufficiently well rooted 
to withstand storms, which would not be the case if they are planted 
immediately over the logs. In setting, the trees should not be 
planted any deeper than they originally grew. 

While the timber in the trenches is rotting the oxygen of the air, 
or of rainwater, combines with the carbonic acid gas. This gas is a 
powerful solvent and acts on certain rebellious elements of the soil, 
reducing them to plant food. 



422 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Now any plan that will hasten the decomposition of the wood will 
prove beneficial. With this in view, iron tubes of suitable size and 
length may be employed. They may be about three inches in diam- 
eter and of proper length to stand about six inches above the ground 
when planted. The arrangement at the bottom should be such as to 
prevent the dirt from running among the logs. 

Puddled clay thrown around the bottom of the tube will be good. 
A tube for each compartment will be required. If preferable, the 
tubes may be constructed of some durable species of wood. 

Banking up Young Trees. — With those who have tried banking up 
the trees which they have set in the fall, no word or argument is neces- 
sary to convince them that it is time well spent. The reasons given 
by Vick's Magazine for favoring this process are as follows: 

"If the earth is piled against the stem of the tree a foot or more 
high, it will greatly lessen the evaporating surface exposed and pre- 
vent the loss of sap to a corresponding extent. It will also keep the 
soil next the roots moister than it would be if left at its natural level. 
And if the tree is pruned back somewhat, as it usually should be, 
there will be still less chance of evaporation. This bank of earth will 
also help to keep the tree from being shaken about by the winds, and 
we well know that a newly-planted tree should be as little disturbed 
as possible until its new roots are grown. The firmer the bank is 
packed the better, for it will set closer to the tree and roots than if 
very loose. In the spring the mounds may be leveled down after 
growth has well started. Cultivation will necessarily work them 
down to about the natural level by midsummer." 

Forcing Blossoms. — A curious feature in fruit and seed growing is 
the fact that with proper care blossoms may largely be forced to the 
fruiting type (female flowers), and the number of male blossoms sys- 
tematically kept down. Professor Meehan's experiments seem to 
have proved beyond doubt that abundant moisture and nourishment 
tend to produce female blossoms. 

Very frequently no effort is made to use plant food in orchards, 
yet a crop of fruit makes a very severe drain on the soil. We all 
understand, without having to go back to first causes, why a horse 
cannot work unless fed, and why a cow gives little milk if dependent 
for sustenance on a worn-out pasture, far overstocked. In the same 
manner, plants must have nourishment to accomplish any useful pur- 



THE ORCHARD 423 

pose, and this nourishment is very largely a matter of plant food — 
nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid. 

It is not easy to state in exact words what a well-balanced plant 
food may be for each crop. There are many disturbing features; 
but, as a general rule, it is quite safe to follow the guide laid down by 
the plant itself. For example, if the chemical analysis of a certain 
crop shows it contains so many pounds of nitrogen, of potash and 
phosphoric acid, it is pretty plain that to grow a similar crop, at least 
the same quantities of each of the three elements of plant food are 
needed. The farmer who has had trouble with non-bearing trees, or 
light grain crops, will do well to look up this matter, and figure out 
what he has been giving his crops heretofore. 

Budding usually begins in July, first with the pears, followed by 
plums, then apples, later on pears, then quinces and peaches. Old 
sticks must usually be budded earlier, as the bark with the older trees 
begins to adhere soonest. 

This is considered the best way to bud trees: With a thin-bladed, 
very sharp knife cut through the bark of the stock on which the bud 
is to be set, making the cut horizontal and not too long. From this 
cut split the bark on the lower side about an inch. When the cut is 
properly made it will be like the letter T. Now carefully loosen the 
bark from the corners and run the point of the knife under the bark 
above the top cut, but do not break the bark. After this is done, 
press the bark back in place to prevent drying while getting the bud 
ready. To get the bud, take the knife and, beginning above the bud, 
cut deep enough to include a very thin piece of hard wood just under 
the bud. Now open the cut in the stock and slip the upper end of 
the bark that is attached to the bud under the bark of the stock 
above the first cut made. Draw back the bark from the lower cut 
and slip the lower part of the bark on the bud into place, then smooth 
the loose bark over it. 

This, when properly done, leaves the cut side of the bud lying 
against the wood of the stock, with the flaps of bark outside the bark 
of the bud, the bud itself sticking out through the slit in the bark of 
the stock. All that now remains to be done is to wrap the stock 
with a waxed string, winding the string around, above, and below the 
bud so as to hold it tight in place, and at the same time keep the air 
from getting into the cut and drying up the juices. 



424 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Girdling to Produce Fertility. — Professor Van Deman writes as fol- 
lows on how to make an unproductive tree bear: "The plan which I 
have followed with success and without permanent injury, is girdling 
in early summer time. This should be done in June. A single cut 
may be made with a knife through the bark, entirely around the 
trunk at any convenient place; or, two or more such cuts may be 
made. If a ring of bark several inches wide is peeled off entirely 
around the trunk of an apple or pear tree at this time of year, no 
harm will follow, for a new bark will soon form over the wound. 
Another very good plan is to remove long strips of bark about two 
inches wide, pointed at both ends, and leaving spaces of bark about 
the same width. Any of these will cause a checking of the flow of 
sap, and an unusual formation of fruit buds instead of an excess of 
wood buds. The trees of the stone fruits are much more sensitive to 
injury, and will not safely endure such treatment as has been 
described; nor do they usually need anything to force them into 
bearing." 

Thinning. — Small and inferior specimens of plums, peaches, pears 
and apples are just as logically the results of overbearing as larger 
handsomer and more perfect specimens are results of thinning. 
Trees have a certain amount of energy to be used in the production 
of fruit. At first they devote their efforts to maturing as many pits 
as possible, a provision of nature looking to the reproduction of the 
species. This lavish contribution to the development of pits leaves 
but little vitality or strength for the development of the fleshy part 
of the fruit. Moreover, the trees are so exhausted that little, if any, 
wood growth is made, thus rendering them an easy prey to the severe 
freezes of winter, and seriously menacing their future usefulness. 
Only a few buds will be formed for the next year's crop if trees 
are permitted to overbear; hence, pretty severe thinning always 
pays. 

Pruning should be done carefully and with judgment; hence, an 
experienced person only should do this work. As to whether fall or 
spring is the best time for it, there is a disagreement among fruit 
growers. One thing is certain, however, when it is necessary to 
remove a limb of considerable size — an inch or over in diameter — 
the best time is September and October. Wounds made at that 
season, though they may not heal over as quickly as at some other 



THE ORCHARD 425 

times, will never decay. Owing, no doubt, to the ripe condition of 
the wood, the cut surface dries and becomes as hard as bone. 

The principal object of all pruning is to trim away the branches 
so that the air and light may be let in to all parts of the tree and 
make the branches bear alike; for this reason the late winter or 
early spring is considered by many the proper time for pruning, as 
during these seasons of the year there are no leaves in the way, and 
it is easy to see just what trimming is required. 

The lower part of the tree is apt to be too thick — too many limbs 
just above the lower branches — and the center of the tree is often too 
crowded for the best results. In taking off branches that are not 
wanted, cut them close to the base, and never an inch or two above 
where they start; for if not cut close, three or four shoots will start 
out, thereby increasing rather than decreasing the number. 

Small twigs are apt to be too numerous, and these should be cut 
out. An important part of this work is in properly painting the 
wood. When pruned after the sap starts, it is not so easy a matter 
to get the paint to adhere to the cuts. Many a fine tree has been 
ruined by not being painted. Water gets in the wood, decay sets in, 
and soon the tree fails. 

A good outfit for pruning may consist of a hand saw, pruning 
shears, small axe and a chisel fixed on a handle about six feet long, 
and a light ladder. 

THE APPLE ORCHARD 

Probably two out of every three people in the world, if asked 
what fruit they considered the most healthful and palatable, would 
pronounce in favor of the apple. The reason of its almost universal 
popularity is that in its composition it strikes "the happy medium," 
being in its percentages of water, acids, sugar, non-nitrogenous sub- 
stances and mineral matters, almost midway between the other fruits, 
or the berries. The territory in which it can be successfully culti- 
vated is also broader than that in which any other of the fruits flour- 
ish. A large space is therefore given to its cultivation. 

Planting the Orchard. — In preparing to plant an apple orchard, the 
ground is plowed and the holes dug in the fall. Alternate freezing 
and thawing, during the winter, put the sides and bottom of the hole 



426 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and the excavated dirt in excellent condition for the reception of the 
tree roots in the spring. 

In digging the holes, a spade length of the surface soil is first 
removed and piled on one side, the loose dirt being thrown out with 
a shovel. The hole is then dug another spade length deeper, and 
this earth, usually clay, piled on the other side of the hole, the remain- 
ing loose dirt not being shoveled out. This makes the hole about 
eighteen inches deep, the diameter about thirty inches at the top 
and twenty inches at the bottom. In every case the holes should be 
large enough to accommodate the roots, and should be in straight 
rows about thirty-three feet apart. Where the ground is in good 
condition it need not be much larger, but when the subsoil is hard 
and solid the larger the hole the better. 

When received from the nursery, the trees are "heeled in," in 
trenches about eighteen inches deep, two feet wide and as long as 
required. The bunches are opened and the ground thrown between 
and over the roots, the tops leaning to the south. 

The earliest planted trees always make the best growth. Planting 
is done soon after a rain, while the ground is moist, though not wet 
enough to be sticky. When the ground is in this condition, no water 
need be used in planting, and there is no trouble with dry clods. 

A thin mortar of surface soil and water is mixed in a hole about 
twenty inches across and ten inches deep. A half-dozen or so of 
trees are taken from the trench, and one by one the roots dipped into 
the mortar, after which the trees are distributed along the holes. A 
line of stakes is set in each row, and while one man holds the tree in 
position another sights from the last tree set, thus keeping the trees 
in a straight line. A tree six inches out of line will make a great 
deal of trouble in cultivating. 

Always set apple trees leaning heavily to the direction of prevail- 
ing winds in your locality, so that the top of a five-foot tree will be 
about two feet out of plumb. If trees are not braced by leaning in 
this way, they will soon be forced to lean the direction the wind 
blows. This is a very undesirable position, for the bodies are left 
unshaded, fewer limbs grow on that side and thus the tree becomes 
more and more unbalanced. 

Grafting the Old Trees. — Many farms have on them a number of 
thrifty old apple trees which bear fruit that is of no use except to 



THE ORCHARD 427 

make cider, and often not the best for that purpose. Such trees may 
be made valuable by grafting them in the top with cions from good 
varieties. 

The new wood should be grafted on those limbs that would make 
the tree symmetrical after the grafts had made some growth. If cut 
off where they are an inch and a half through, two cions can be set 
in, and eventually there will be a fork at that place. No more of the 
top should be cut out than is necessary to make room for the new 
cions, and as these grow the limbs bearing the original fruit may be 
cut away to make room for them. 

To set in grafts, cut the end of the limb square off and split with 
a thin chisel, being careful not to make the split too long. Cut the 
graft to a wedge shape and set in the split, being very careful to have 
the bark of the cion and the stock meet on one side. After the cion 
is set, cover the end of the stock and the sides, as far as split, with 
grafting wax. 

How to Make the Grafting Wax. — Resin, beeswax and mutton tallow 
are the ingredients of the best grafting wax, and equally serviceable 
for a cut on a tree, which needs a salve. One recipe, highly recom- 
mended, requires two parts tallow, three parts beeswax and eight 
parts resin, while another recommends tallow and beeswax in equal 
parts, and resin twice as much as the two combined. The materials 
should be melted and mixed well until uniform throughout. 

Picking and Assorting. — The practice of leaving apples on the tree 
until they are easily picked off is not a commendable one, as when 
left so long a heavy wind coming up will shake a great many of them 
down, and reduce their value to that of cider stock. The best time 
to pick apples is just when they have arrived - at perfection, and no 
standard rule as to time can be given, for the different varieties 
mature at different times. 

If apples are left on the tree until entirely ripe, they will not keep 
as well as they would had they been picked a little before fully ripe, 
and allowed to mature in a pile. When ripened off the tree they lose 
a little in juiciness, but this loss is so slight that it is more than made 
up by the advantage of the better keeping quality that comes with 
early picking. 

As a general rule, apples should be picked before the leaves are 
off the trees. This means before a killing frost has touched them. 



4*8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

If picked early and piled up in the orchard and covered with straw, 
they go through a sweat similar to that of stacked grain, and cure 
out so they will keep firm and solid for a long time. Even late fall 
apples that are picked just before they are ripe, and ripened in a pile, 
will keep until Christmas in perfect condition. 

The grower who is careless in picking and sorting his fruit, who 
pays but little attention to the kind or appearance of the package in 
which it is sent to market, is the worst sufferer; for it is this class of 
fruit that is passed by when there is an oversupply. 

Packing. — Full regulation-sized barrels should be used for this pur- 
pose. Take the barrel, one head out, nail the hoops and break off 
the ends of the nails at the inside; place a layer or tier of apples, 
good and uniform size, smooth, bright, healthy, as closely as possible, 
stems downward, on the lower end; then fill up a basketful at a time, 
throwing out small, wormy, gnarly and windfall apples, and shaking 
the barrel well after each deposit until it is full two inches above the 
rim; place the head squarely on the apples, and with a screw or lever 
press force it into place and nail securely. Turn over the barrel and 
mark name of apple with red or black lead, or pencil. Bear in mind 
that, to be shipped safely, fruit must be packed tight, to prevent rat- 
tling or bruising. 

In shipping apples the first of the season — early varieties — ship- 
pers should see that openings are cut on one side of the barrels and 
also in both ends, to admit of free circulation of air, which will 
greatly help to bring apples through in good condition during warm 
weather. 

Storing Apples for Winter. — If to be put in the cellar, either in bar- 
rels or bulk, apples should be placed in piles of from twenty to forty 
bushels, and covered with sufficient straw to exclude light. All 
bruised or partially rotted or inferior specimens should be discarded 
or placed in a pile or bin by themselves; the sound ones should be 
very carefully handled, so as not to bruise them in the least, as the 
bruised place is where decay begins. Where they are in bulk, the 
temperature in the cellar should never be much under forty degrees, 
which should be maintained as uniformly as possible. If in barrels, 
the temperature may run as low as thirty-three degrees Fahrenheit. 

A well-ventilated house or barn is a good place to keep apples 
until severe cold weather comes, when they should be placed in 



THE ORCHARD 429 

winter quarters. "We have found the hay loft a nice place to keep 
them through the winter," says one successful grower, "but they were 
covered with several feet or more of straw and were on six feet or 
more of straw; the barn was tight and warm, and unless the winters 
were very severe, we never had many freeze. 

"The length of time sound winter apples will keep depends to a 
great extent upon the manner in which they are stored. Jonathan, 
Winesap, Huntsman's Favorite and other varieties of this class have 
been preserved nicely until spring, the first of March, by very extra 
care and attention during the winter. A plan which has accom- 
plished this is to wrap each apple in a piece of paper sufficiently large 
to cover it with one thickness; the extra paper is twisted and pressed 
around the apple, making the receptacle almost air-tight. Before 
placing the paper around the apples, however, they are thoroughly 
examined and carefully wiped with a cotton cloth; after wrapping 
them they are placed upon shelves in the cellar, a space for the free 
circulation of the air being left between them; that is, no apple is in 
contact with another, and there is but one layer on a shelf." 

Cold Storage of Apples. — The standard barrel holding three bushels 
is the best for cold storage. For cold storage only barrels made from 
No. 1 stock should be used. This means thick staves of elm, cotton- 
wood or sycamore, well seasoned. Buy the barrels early and store 
them away out of the dirt. Prices of barrels are invariably lower at 
the beginning of the season. 

Never place a dropped apple in the barrel for cold storage. The 
probabilities are that it is bruised, even if you can't see it. The size 
of fruit to be picked should not be less than two and one-half inches 
in diameter. Each individual apple should be handled carefully, and 
baskets emptied with equal care. If the picking and packing can be 
carried on at the same time, it is highly desirable. Otherwise, take 
the apples to the packing-house as soon as possible. 

PEACH TREES 

Probably no fruit tree has been more abused than the peach. 
Orchard after orchard has been set out, to live a few years and then 
to be grubbed out as past its usefulness. 

The peach orchard, to thrive, should be on the highest ground 
with a northern slope, if possible. The soil should be light and 



430 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

loamy. Trees should be planted about twenty-two feet apart. The 
instructions previously given for planting apple trees should be fol- 
lowed in every detail. Special care should be taken with the fertil- 
ization, pruning and trimming. Peach trees are more sensitive and 
liable to the ravages of more insects than any other tree in the 
orchard, and, for this reason, unusual care should be taken in their 
cultivation. 

"A warm, light, loamy soil is best for peaches, yet about any 
except a stiff clay will answer, if other things are right," says the 
famous grower, J. H. Hale, who has made such a success in the grow- 
ing of peaches, both in Connecticut and Georgia. "Rocky hill lands 
that have been just a little too tough a proposition for good tillage in 
the past, make an ideal foundation for a peach orchard; there is 
color and flavor for peaches in these rocky old hills, and it is cheaper 
to remove rocks at odd seasons of the year than to buy fertilizers. 

"When ready to plant trees, get big ones. I have planted nearly 
400,000 peach trees in orchards the past twenty years, nearly all June- 
budded or else light to medium-sized one-year trees, with occasional 
lots of No. 1 or extra-sized trees. I really care nothing about the 
top, so long as you can get a heavy root and strong cane fifteen or 
eighteen inches up; you will cut away the rest anyway, and so be in 
shape to build any sort of top you may. I have made the most 
money, North and South, planting thirteen feet apart or closer each 
way. Of course, it means a lot of pruning, while wide-apart planting 
tempts neglect of this most necessary operation with the peach tree. 
Still, taking human nature as it is, I cannot advise the other fellow 
to plant very close. From eighteen to twenty-two feet apart each 
way will doubtless give the best results, planting closer in the South 
than in the North, where trees are inclined to more wood and foliage 
growth. Cultivate thoroughly. 

"The first two years, after a month or six weeks of thorough 
culture, seed to cow-peas over two-thirds the space between the rows 
of trees, leaving space enough for good single-horse culture up and 
down each side of the trees for two months more. Leaving the pea- 
vines on the ground as a winter mulch will be less loss than to plow 
them under and so have bare ground all winter. After two years of 
peas in an orchard, the tree roots should reach out through the whole 
orchard, and should have the whole run of it to feed and drink upon 



THE ORCHARD 43 t 

during the rapid growing months, when the liveliest culture is being 
given. If culture has been what it ought from the opening of spring 
down to the last of July or early August, trees will be growing so fast 
that they can't well stop before fall, and the whole ground should be 
seeded to clover at the last cultivation. I consider fifteen to twenty 
pounds per acre of seed is little enough for a thick clover carpet over 
the ground through the fall and winter, and is a great protection to 
peach roots. Plow this clover under early the next spring." 

PLUMS 

The prairie region of the West seems to be the natural home of 
the plum. This fruit is found in a wild state in the greatest abun- 
dance along the river bluffs and every place where there is natural 
timber. And yet the cultivated plums always meet with ready sale 
in the towns and villages. Many of the cultivated, varieties are 
natives, improved, of course, by careful selection and propagation. 
They are the equal of the best California varieties, and, owing to 
their great freshness when placed on the market, are generally pre- 
ferred by customers. 

American plums, such as Wild Goose, from the seed, are slow to 
fruit. They will consume five to ten years in making and ripening 
wood before bearing. Root-pruning will force them to put on fruit. 
Cutting off the tap-root eighteen to twenty inches below the surface 
of the ground will check wood formation and throw the trees to 
fruiting. Pinching out new ends and cutting back the summer growth 
in July will develop the plum tree's fruiting propensity. The wood 
growing must be checked. 

Plums are the easiest to grow of all the fruits in the western sec- 
tion of the country, and they do best when grown in the midst of the 
runs given to the poultry. The insects which make against the fruit 
are choice delicacies for the fowls, and but few of the most detrac- 
tive of these insects will escape their sharp eyes when they have con- 
stant access to the ground. The people who give free run to their 
poultry, and those as well who keep them confined, if they have ground 
room suitable for the growth of plum trees, are throwing away dollars 
in not planting plum trees. Under right management the fruit can 
be made to pay for the keep of the hens, leaving all the returns from 
them net profit. Plums cannot be successfully grown in all localities, 



432 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

but there is no question about their success within the territory above 
named, and everyone can have the profit of them who will reach 
forth his hand to take it. 

PEARS AND CHERRIES 

The best soil for the pear is one moderately heavy, sandy and dry, 
with a subsoil of light clay which is easily penetrated by the roots to 
a great depth. A moderate proportion of iron is desirable, and where 
there is a deficiency of this element use iron cinders. The best situa- 
tion is an undulating eastern or southern exposure. As in the case 
of the apple, the best fertilizers are barnyard manure, wood ashes, 
lime and bone-dust. 

There are a great variety of pears, those required for dessert 
being soft and sugary. Pears for stewing or baking should be large, 
firm-fleshed and moderately juicy. Many of the most delicious vari- 
eties, if allowed to ripen on the tree, become dry and insipid. It is 
therefore best, as a rule, to ripen them indoors on the shelves of a 
cool fruit room. In the cultivation of the pear the soil must be kept 
clean and well tilled, but the ground should not be deeply spaded or 
plowed near the trunk. If affected by blight, it is best, according to 
the Maryland Agricultural College, that the pear orchards should be 
got into sod as soon as possible. 

The original cherry was an Asiatic growth, and in the United 
States is essentially a northern fruit. The soil does not require to 
be rich; in fact, the fruit flourishes with little or no manuring of the 
soil. The tree, however, needs to be trained so that the trunks shall 
be shaded and the fruit be protected from the sun. Repeated experi- 
ments in the transplanting of young cherry trees prove that nothing 
is gained by severe root-trimming. 

SAVE THE BIRDS 

Too many farmers make the mistake of allowing the birds to be 
killed off the farm. Mischievous boys are allowed to shoot every- 
thing and anything they please, and in many cases there are farms 
where there are but few if any birds. This applies not only to quail, 
but to many song birds as well. "While it is true that birds eat some 
fruit and some grain, and sometimes eat a little in the garden, from 
several years of experience I am satisfied that their war on the insect 






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THE ORCHARD 433 

pests more than pays for all of the stuff they eat, and gives fully 
one hundred per cent, profit," says a Northern Illinois farmer. 

"During the years we have lived on our farm here, we have never 
allowed birds to be killed at any time, especially quail. We have 
some fruit trees near the house, and, commencing early in the spring 
and all through summer, these are thronged with birds. There are 
two or more mocking birds, and these have been here for twelve 
years. We are certain we are bothered less with pests than our 
neighbors; and we have come to believe that the birds are the cause." 

Insect pests and worms destroy large amounts of grain and fruit 
every year, far more than the birds, and it would, in a majority of 
cases, be better economy to save the birds and get rid of the pests. 

ENEMIES OF THE ORCHARD 

It is quite natural that the orchard should have more enemies — 
insect, bird, and animal — than either the farm or garden, since her 
luscious treasures are above ground, as well as the trees which bear 
them. The following article is therefore of foremost value to the 
grower of fruits, whether he be an experimenter or a successful 
horticulturist. 

Black Ants and How to Destroy Them.- — When your fruit trees lose 
their bark near the ground, look out for black ants. These pests will 
eat off a girdle of bark next to the soil. Frequent inspection should 
be made. If the ants are found, trace them to their nest, which will 
be not far from the trees they are attacking. Having found their 
nest, you can kill them with bisulphide of carbon. Pour some of the 
poison into the entrance to the nest, and cover the nest with a thick 
cloth, so weighted down with stones that the gas formed cannot 
escape. The gas formed by the evaporation of the bisulphide of 
carbon is much heavier than air, and therefore it will sink into the 
nest, displace the lighter air and suffocate the ants. 

Even the ordinary conical ant-hill can be cleaned out by this 
method. Another way to destroy an ant-nest is to pour kerosene or 
gasoline into the heap, let it spread throughout the mass and then 
fire it. 

Sugar will attract the ants. Scatter it freely about the nests. 
When the second ration of sugar is scattered, mix a little arsenic with 
it. The ants cannot distinguish between the arsenic and the sugar, 



434 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and the diet will do them up. The best way to fight ants is the way 
that will kill the workers and destroy the eggs at the same time. 
The firing method will accomplish this. 

A Farmer's Way to Exterminate Borers. — "As a preventive of borers, 
keeping the soil of an orchard well cultivated will not do to depend 
on," writes J. L. Traughber, of Texas. "In Missouri I used to keep 
the soil about and between my trees as clear of weeds and grass as a 
public road, and as loose and fine as an onion bed ought to be, yet I 
have taken out as many as fifteen young borers, some of them more 
than two inches above dirt, on trees not larger than a hoe handle — 
enough to have eaten the tree off in a short time if they had not been 
removed while small. 

"Borers do apple trees no great damage if they are removed 
before they are more than a quarter of an inch long, as up to that 
time they work only in the bark. If one knows how to look for them 
it is an easy matter to find young borers, or even eggs, on young 
trees with smooth bark. On older trees I would recommend the 
removal of the rough bark by rubbing with a corn-cob. The fly that 
lays the egg splits the bark up and down about one-eighth of an inch 
and then loosens the bark a little on each side of the split and 
deposits the egg in the place so prepared. When the borer hatches 
it sucks the sap of the bark till large enough to begin to eat. While 
in the bark borers are easily removed by inserting the point of a knife 
blade in the split made by the fly and turning it back. Eggs are 
caught in the same way. I used to be able to see where an egg was 
deposited on young trees, standing ten feet from the tree. 

"I believe that eggs or young borers may be killed without injury 
to the tree by tapping the bark above them with the butt of a knife 
handle or with a hammer. There are washes that will prevent 
borers, but the cheapest and most effective way is to wrap the tree 
with something. Twisted grass or hay is a very good wrap. I have 
kept it on both winter and summer. It is also a good preventive of 
girdling by rabbits. As to the time when borer eggs are deposited, 
the season runs from May to October, all statements to the contrary 
notwithstanding. In 1894 I took out newly laid eggs on Septem- 
ber 22." 

Apple Tree Borers. — According to Professor Chittenden, the three 
larger apple tree borers are the round-headed borer, Seperda Candida; 



THE ORCHARD 435 

the spotted borer, Seperda Cretata; the flat-headed borer, Chryso- 
bothris Femorata. 

The methods of controlling the round-headed apple tree borer 
are to practice clean culture, cut the larvae out of the tree, kill them 
by applying kerosene wherever their castings are seen protruding 
through the bark, or prevent their entrance by means of impenetra- 
ble substances, such as paper and hydraulic cement, or by repellent 
washes made from fish oil or soft soap, with the addition of caustic 
potash or washing soda carbolated with carbolic acid. 

The remedies are the same for the spotted and flat-headed apple 
tree borers as for the round-headed borers, except that for the flat- 
headed borer the coverings and washes should be applied farther up 
the tree trunks and branches, and that trap-wood may be used. It is 
suggested that limbs and trunks of newly felled trees which the 
borers attack, such as oak, maple and young fruit trees, be distributed 
on the outskirts of the orchard, where they should be freely exposed 
to the sun, so that the beetles will deposit their eggs on them. This 
trap-wood should then be destroyed before the beetles emerge the 
following spring. 

Peach Borers. — Prof. John B.Smith, of the New Jersey Experiment 
Station, has made elaborate inquiry concerning peach borers. He 
says no application can be made on the outside of the tree which will 
keep away the borers. The proper way is to keep them out from the 
beginning. No young trees should be planted without being exam- 
ined for borers. The trees should be wrapped with double thick- 
nesses of newspapers, so at least fifteen inches of the trunk is covered 
above the ground, and the wrapping should be kept on until the 
middle of September. When the wrappings are taken off the trees 
should be closely examined for borers, and if any have got in above 
the paper they should be dug out. Thereafter the trees should be 
annually wrapped in papers put on about the middle of June. 
Hydraulic cement mixed with skim-milk, plastered around the tree, 
is cheap and effective. 

Bitter Rol. — Prof. John T. Stinson, of the Missouri State Experiment 
Station, located at Mountain Grove, in the southern part of the state, 
has written a report on this subject of much importance to apple 
growers. 

The disease, which is caused by a fungus with a long name, has 



436 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

occasioned considerable loss to the apple growers of the southern 
states for years. During the season of 1900 it appeared in the form 
of an epidemic and played havoc with orchards in southern Missouri 
and southern Illinois. Bitter rot appears at a time when the crop is 
about ready for market, and consequently when the disease is difficult 
to control, as the practice of spraying at such a time seriously affects 
in many cases the marketableness of the fruit. 

Observations made in several orchards disclosed the fact that 
bitter rot was confined very largely to highly-colored fruit growing 
on the southwest side of trees, where it made its first appearance, 
while shaded fruit was lightly attacked and but little damaged. Ben 
Davis, Willow Twig and Huntsman are varieties most subject to it, 
and fruit of old trees suffers more from it than fruit of more vigorous 
trees. 

Spraying with Bordeaux mixture, which is said to postpone the 
ripening period of the fruit from ten days to two weeks, is recom- 
mended for controlling bitter rot, experiments showing that in 
Arkansas, in 1899, "there was 2.8 per cent, of the fruit from the trees 
sprayed affected by the disease, and on the unsprayed trees there was 
16.5 per cent, affected thereby." 

Peach-leaf Curl is a fungous disease commonly attacking the leaves 
of peach trees, causing them to turn yellow, wrinkled and swollen, 
to curl up, and later on to die and fall off. The same disease also 
attacks the fruit of plum trees, causing it to be puffed up and 
making what is known as wind-plum or bladder-plum Prof. W. A. 
Murrill, of the Cornell University Station, gives a summary of two 
years' work in the prevention of leaf curl of the peach. The conclu- 
sion is that it can be readily controlled when proper and timely 
treatment is given. The orchards selected for the experiments rep- 
resented a variety of fruit, conditions of soil, moisture and exposure. 

The trees were sprayed with different strengths of solutions of 
Bordeaux mixture, potassium sulphide, ammoniacal copper carbon- 
ate, copper sulphate and lime. Of the substances employed as 
fungicides, Bordeaux mixture proved most useful, and the treatment 
recommended for peach-leaf curl, based upon these and other experi- 
ments, is as follows: Spray with Bordeaux consisting of six pounds 
of copper sulphate, four pounds of good quicklime and fifty gallons 
of water, about the first of April when the buds are beginning to 



THE ORCHARD 437 

swell. Spray again when the petals have fallen, with Bordeaux con- 
sisting of two pounds of copper sulphate, two pounds of good quick- 
lime and fifty gallons of water. If the weather of April and early 
May is warm and dry this second spraying may be omitted. 

"The Black-knot Fungus," says William Williams, of the Rhode 
Island State Board of Agriculture, "is the policeman of the plum and 
cherry tree. It is called upon to preserve the peace of the organism 
disturbed by underfeeding, or overfeeding, or improper feeding, or 
some other affecting influence. And this it does by removing the 
cause, and the way it sets about this task is simple. If the process of 
fermentation should cease this would be a dead world. 

"This fermentation in vegetable life is perpetuated by spores, and 
there is not a moment in which organic life is not affected by them. 
And now let us see how these spores, the police of the world, set 
about their task. Floating in the air these spores are seeking food, 
and as they cannot maintain themselves on healthy trees they attack 
weak trees. It is probable that even healthy trees are covered with 
spores doomed to early death because they cannot obtain food. 
Settling upon the diseased or weak portion of the tree they do what 
all life does — they send out fine, delicate roots or filaments which 
contain a fermentative principle that removes the obstruction and 
aids in the restoration of the twig or branch to health, just as a sore 
or suppuration does in animal life. 

"If these observations are correct then it is not sufficient to remove 
the black-knot from the tree, for the tree says as plainly as anything 
can be said, that it is sick and needs assistance. 

"But first of all the black-knot must be removed with knife or 
saw, and be sure to cut deep enough so as not to leave the least 
thread in the wound. Cover over the cut with lead paint, so that 
the water may be kept out. Varnish will answer if renewed, but be 
careful about kerosene. 

"Be careful to sterilize the instrument, whether knife or saw, with 
which you extirpate or cut off the black-knot. At least take a cloth 
saturated with carbolic acid and carefully wipe the saw or knife 
before you use it on another tree. Do not forget that in cutting off 
the black-knot you are only destroying the effects. Study the cause, 
and apply the remedy or remedies necessary for the restoration of 
the tree to a healthy condition." 



43 3 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

One fruit grower reports that he has cured black-knot on his plum 
trees by a smothering process. He coats the affected spots with a 
wax made of tallow, resin and kerosene in equal parts. The aim of 
the covering is to prevent the casting off of the spores of the fungus. 
When the knot enlarges he applies more wax. He says that the 
coating causes the seared spots to heal over and prevents the spread 
of the disease to other trees. 

Curculio. — The worst pests that affect plum and cherry trees are 
black-knots (the means to remove which have just been given) and 
the curculio. This insect devotes its attention to the fruit and allows 
the tree to devote its energies to the production of wood and 
increased growth. Generally if the plum or cherry orchard is sur- 
rounded by a chicken-tight fence and the poultry is kept confined to 
the orchard until the danger of curculio is past the insects will not 
sting more of the fruits than should be taken off for the best results, 
and this is a cheap way of keeping the little Turk in subjection. 
Spraying the trees with arsenical solutions is sometimes effective, but 
very often the foliage is hurt by the spray. Spreading a muslin sheet 
under the tree and giving it a sudden jar is a very good way to catch 
the insects. 

The Codlin-moth can be exterminated by spraying in the spring 
and destroying the wormy apples in the fall. The most effective way 
to destroy wormy apples which fall from the trees is to let sheep or 
hogs run in the orchard and eat them. Hogs root unless they are 
ringed, and no one puts rings in a hog's nose nowadays, and this 
makes their presence objectionable. Sheep eat apples greedily and 
are much more cleanly than hogs. If they are turned in the orchard 
for a day or two they will eat every fallen apple, and they should be 
turned in every week during the growing season — a few every 
day. Soon after the apples fall the worm emerges and buries itself 
in the ground, to remain until the next spring when it appears as 
a full-fledged codlin-moth ready to damage the crop of the next 
year. 

Thorn apples are almost invariably filled with the larvse of the 
codlin-moth and the trees should, therefore, be cut down unless they 
are kept for ornamental purposes, when they should be thoroughly 
sprayed several times in the spring. The damage done by the 
codlin-moth is incalculable and costs the fruit growers of this country 



THE ORCHARD 439 

a thousand times more than the San Jose scale, although few stop to 
consider this fact. 

The Tent Caterpillar. — One of the commonest orchard pests, after 
the codlin-moth and curculio, are the tent caterpillars. They work and 
build their nests so conspicuously that there is no necessity for 
missing them, and their presence in an orchard is an open and public 
advertisement of carelessness on the part of the owner. 

These insects come in increasing numbers for a series of years, 
and then almost disappear only to begin over again. They infest 
wild-cherry, crab-apple and osage-orange trees as well as orchard 
trees and should be hunted down wherever they make a stand. 

A good way to destroy them is to locate their nests during the 
day and then burn them in the evening. To burn them take a pole 
and tie over one end a bunch of old rags, making a compact ball the 
size of a baseball or larger. Soak the ball in kerosene and set it on 
fire. With this torch burn the caterpillars as they retire to their 
nests at stated times. Do not hold the torch steadily under the nest, 
as to do so would kill the branches to which it is fastened. If the 
flame is passed slowly back and forth just below the nest it will have 
the desired effect without injuring the tree. 

It is also a good plan to shoot them off the trees, using powder 
only, a thin oiled paper being put in the cartridge over the powder 
to hold it in. The burning of the powder and the shock of the 
explosion kills all the worms. 

Body-blight on pear trees is supposed to be caused by the fungus of 
apple-canker, Sphaeropsis Malorum. It is a bad trouble in a pear 
orchard, as it attacks the bark on the trunk and the larger limbs, 
causing it to loosen and die. The blight checks the tree badly, so 
that it is dwarfed and finally killed. 

When it appears on a pear tree it should be fought from the start. 
The roughened spots should be scraped quite thoroughly, at least 
enough to remove all sheltering scales of bark, so that the fungus 
may be reached. The scraped spots may then be painted with Bor- 
deaux mixture. If the spots do not come out smooth and clean 
repeat the painting. When this blight appears it is well to paint all 
the trees, going over the trunks and large limbs thoroughly with the 
Bordeaux. 

Rabbits. — As soon as the weather gets sufficiently cold for frosts to 



44 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

kill off the green growth, all your trees should be protected from 
rabbits, as serious damage may be done. 

A cheap way is to wrap cloths around the stem commencing close 
to the ground and wrapping at least two feet high, tying at the top 
and bottom so that the wind will not blow off. A still better 
mechanical protection is to take screen wire cloth 26 or 28 inches 
wide, cut in strips sufficiently wide so that when rolled it will fit 
entirely around the tree. This will not only protect the tree from 
mice and rabbits during the winter, but can be left on and will protect 
from borers in the summer, and will not need to be taken off at any 
time until it rusts away. It costs more at first, but considering all of 
the advantages is really cheapest in the end. 

The objection to washes of any kind is that the majority of them 
must be repeated after every hard storm of rain in order to be 
effective. 

Blood of any kind, or cold grease, will keep rabbits away, but must 
be repeated several times during the winter. One of the best washes 
is glue, asafetida and whitewash. The glue helps to make the wash 
lasting, and usually one good application will answer, while it will be 
an exceptional case where more than two will be necessary during 
the winter. The objection to paper is that it prevents the air circu- 
lating as freely as it ought for the best thrift of the trees, and if left 
on all winter the bark will become very tender. 

How to Treat Trees Wounded by Ground Mice. — It sometimes hap- 
pens that mice will gnaw the bark of young trees during the 
winter. This is especially the case if the mulch of coarse manure is 
piled up too closely around the trunk or stem of the trees. The 
mulch often affords them a protection under which they shelter and 
almost before one is aware the mischief will be done. As with much 
else of this kind, prevention is better than cure. But if done, a little 
care in good season will often save the trees. 

If not entirely girdled, mix cow manure and moist soft earth well 
together and bind in the wound, covering entirely. Use a broad band 
of cloth fully wider than the wound of the tree, fasten securely and 
let remain on until it rots off. When the tree is completely girdled, 
cions about one-half inch in diameter — either one or two-year-old 
wood will answer — should be secured. Cut them into proper length, 
long enough to readily reach a little above and a little below the 



THE ORCHARD 44« 

wound, and sharpen into a wedge form at both ends, making the 
wedge nearly or quite an inch long. Insert the wedge-shaped ends 
into incisions made with a thin half-inch chisel into the sound wood 
above and below the wound, thus bridging the injured portion of the 
stem of the tree. Three or four of these cions should be inserted in 
this way, depending somewhat upon the size of the tree. In this way 
the sap can be conveyed to the top. 

The cions should be cut long enough so that by bending somewhat 
they can be sprung into place and both ends be held in place by the 
slight bend. The incisions made with the chisel should be made at 
as sharp an angle as can be without tearing out. When completed 
the incisions and all of the exposed surface should be protected from 
the air and moisture with wax, as in grafts. With care a tree that 
would otherwise be killed may be saved jn this way. 

The Woolly Aphis, in the spring and summer, may be found on the 
bodies and branches of shade and orchard trees, especially the apple. 
At this time there may be found very small insects of a yellowish- 
green color, some of them winged and others wingless, and at the 
same time if we notice very closely we find what appear to be very 
small white specks upon the bark. By the use of a magnifying glass 
it will be found that these small specks are the young aphididae, with 
a very limited amount of wool upon their bodies. As the season 
advances the wool becomes more apparent, clinging comparatively 
close to the bark until late in the fall, when the insects leave, a great 
many taking wings and flying away, while a part of them probably 
descend the trunk of the tree to the ground. The wool at this time 
hangs quite closely to the bark, and may even be blown off by the 
wind. Also our attention may be called to a tree thus affected by 
its sticky, pale appearance. The leaves may have lost their luster 
and deep green color and look dingy and dirty. We may not be 
able to detect the aphis. It may be springtime and too early for 
them to show on the body of the tree. Examine the small roots and 
there find what appears to be spots of mold, possibly on the smooth 
bark of the root; or we may find a root covered wholly, or in part, 
with wart-like excrescences in spots. Either of these conditions is 
indicative of the presence of the aphis. 



CHAPTER XVI 
CHICKENS AND EGGS 

Waste Products of the Dairy, Garden and Orchard as Poultry Food — Sun- 
shine and Shade — Food, Water, and Exercise — Choice of Breeds — Laying 
Hens and Eggs — Their Proper Care — Winter Poultry House and Food — 
Care and Preservation of Eggs — Breeding Poultry — Mother Hen, Incu- 
bator and Brooder — Chicks and Their Care — Meat and Feathers — Diseases 
and Pests of Chickens — Their Treatment and Eradication. 

Poultry may be raised with the greatest economy on the large 
farms of the country, where there is unlimited range, an exhaustless 
supply of insects and worms and an abundance of seeds and grains 
going to waste, which poultry alone can utilize. Under such circum- 
stances fowls take care of themselves so well and are so energetic in 
seeking their food that they are either forgotten and allowed to shift 
for themselves when they really need attention and assistance, or 
they are regarded as a nuisance because they sometimes do a little 
damage. When fenced away from the gardens and flower beds fowls 
do little damage and cause scarcely any annoyance on a farm. On 
the other hand they do an immense amount of good in the protection 
of crops by the destruction of injurious insects, larva; and worms. 

Sometimes it is advisable to divide the flock into colonies and 

place these at different points upon the farm in order to secure 

additional range, to remove the birds temporarily at a distance from 

certain crops, or for other purposes. In this case cheap, light and 

easily handled colony houses may be constructed and placed where 

the fowls are desired to range. After being confined in these houses 

a few nights the birds will adopt them as their habitations and return 

to them. 

442 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 443 

Dairy Products as Poultry Food. — There are certain special lines of 
agricultural operations with which poultry raising may be advanta- 
geously connected. In dairying there is usually a large quantity of 
skim milk or buttermilk which may be utilized to furnish a consider- 
able part of the poultry ration. There is also much food to be 
gathered by the fowls about the stables, manure piles and pastures 
which would otherwise go to waste. 

Waste Fruit as Poultry Food. — Upon the fruit farm fowls are also of 
advantage. They keep down the insect pests and may have a free 
range the greater part of the season without the possibility of doing 
any damage. Plum growers have found poultry especially helpful in 
keeping down the curculio, and even apples have been considerably 
benefited. If small fruits are injured they may, of course, be pro- 
tected by confining the fowls for the limited season when the fruit is 
ripening. The waste fruits either in winter or summer are a welcome 
and valuable addition to the poultry ration. 

Garden Products as Poultry Food. — The market garden also furnishes 
a large amount of waste products which may be utilized for poultry 
feed. There are the waste lettuce, the small heads of cabbage, the 
unsold beets, carrots, potatoes, peas and corn, which cannot be 
marketed for any reason, the waste of the small fruits, etc. If 
properly cared for, the hens will bring a steady and reliable income 
during the winter months. Dried clover and other green feed, roots 
and tubers should be saved for them during the summer. These 
should be steamed and fed with the mash, or cabbages and beets may 
be fed raw. A catch crop of buckwheat or oats and peas will furnish 
much food at little expense. Bran, meat, meal, wheat screenings and 
oats purchased for poultry will bring good returns in eggs, and will 
also add materially to the fertilizer supply. 

Cleanliness, sunshine in winter and shade in summer are at the 
foundation of success with poultry. Everyone knows what cleanli- 
ness is, and most all know of some good disinfectant to use and apply 
after everything is clean. Kerosene oil and crude carbolic acid are 
the cheapest and most effective. 

It is a mistake to be constantly feeding poultry special prepara- 
tions to ward off disease. The surest preventives are clean 
quarters, simple, wholesome food and plenty of sunshine in winter, 
as well as shade in summer. 



444 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Shade in Summer is particularly essential to the growth and general 
welfare of poultry. The orchard is the poultry's paradise, and the 
orchard also is greatly benefited by their presence; so keep the two 
combined, and if you are careless about the growth of your fruit trees 
by not cultivating them and keeping every weed down, do this for 
the sake of your poultry, and you will have done your trees ah 
immense amount of good. Fowls yarded up for breeding purposes 
must be accommodated with abundance of shade, and all such 
yards should be planted to good shade. 

In the absence of trees temporary shade should be supplied. 
During the month of August sow a little patch of rye in a convenient 
place for the chicks; this will furnish pasturage for them all winter 
and spring. Better still, sow a piece of ground to alfalfa clover, for 
this is the best green feed that can be found for poultry. 

A low shed, with a thick roof of straw or branches cut with the 
leaves on, makes a good sort of shade. The shed may be merely 
posts four feet high with strips spiked on to support the roof. It 
should stand in some place where the air can circulate freely, and 
where there is no chance for surface drainage to make it wet and 
muddy during rainy weather. If such a shed is made, and the 
surface under it is made fine and mellow by spading it over once or 
twice, the hens will luxuriate in the cool earth, in which they will soon 
dig wallowing places, and not only be healthier but will produce more 
eggs than they will if compelled to find shelter along fences and 
under chance weeds where whatever air that may be moving cannot 
reach them. 

Food, Water, and Exercise. — It would be a paying investment on 
the farm to devote an acre to growing special poultry feeding stuffs. 
Millet, Kaffir corn, sunflowers and popcorn could be grown on such 
a patch, and supply enough grain for a large flock of poultry at a 
low cost. 

Millet is one of the best feeds for poultry, old and young, and is 
especially valuable for young chickens. It will pay a farmer to 
sow a small patch of millet especially, so as to have the seed for his 
hens. 

Kaffir corn is a good feed for chickens of all ages. It yields forty 
bushels of seed to the acre and is as easily grown as corn. The 
stalks, after the heads are cut off, make good rough feed for cattle. 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 445 

Grain, vegetables and green food enter largely into making up 
the daily ration for poultry. Potato parings and small potatoes, 
cabbage and turnips may either be cooked or may be fed raw, being 
chopped up fine. During autumn a piece of ground may be sown to 
rye to furnish pasturage in fall and winter. Alfalfa clover is perhaps 
the best green food for poultry, and every poultryman should have a 
piece of ground set apart for alfalfa. The hay, when cut green and 
well cured, is in first-class condition to feed poultry, either dry or 
steamed, and will add largely to egg production. 

Green bone if fed in moderation as a part of a balanced egg ration 
is very good; if fed to excess it may become very bad, especially if 
care is not taken in warm weather. The fowls may be injured by 
feeding bone which is rancid or even putrid. 

Bear in mind also that hens and roosters are addicted to the 
natural habit of drinking when they have access to water. Keep them 
supplied with a troughful of pure, fresh water into which drop a few 
old nails occasionally. This will furnish iron in about the correct quan- 
tity. In winter it is recommended that the chill be taken off the water. 

Use only glazed dishes for drinking vessels in the poultry yard. 
Porous dishes and wooden ones become infested with germs of all 
sorts. Tin dishes rust out, and leak, and poison the fowls. Iron 
vessels are quite as bad as wood and tin and porous ones. Broken 
fruit jars are easily cleaned, and they are so shaped that the fowls 
cannot get their feet into them to dirty the water. 

The digestive organs of the domestic fowl are a rather delicate 
muscular contrivance, and the more these muscles are strengthened 
by exercise the better, if in the natural manner — scratching — if there 
is something for them to scratch for. On this subject of exercise a 
Virginia farmer gives some sound advice. He says: "After some 
experience in growing fowls I have observed that they will do much 
better when they can have the run of a stretch of woodland than 
when confined in close, unhealthy quarters, and more especially is 
this true during the hot weather. We have a woodland slope on the 
north side of our house, and the fowls all go into it to scratch and 
give but little trouble about the premises. They find gravel and lime 
there, which they cannot do when penned up in small enclosures. 
Then they look so much cleaner and better in appearance that it has 
a good effect when you wish to market them." 



446 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

THE CHOICE OF BREEDS 

A mistake is often made in selecting fowls of a breed that is not 
suited for the purpose for which they are to be kept. If egg produc- 
tion is the all important point it is a mistake to select a breed of 
fowls that is not noted for this product. If on the other hand meat 
is the chief object an expensive mistake will be made if any but the 
heavy-bodied fowls are chosen. The small, active, nervous, egg- 
producing breed cannot compete with the larger for meat production. 
Then, too, if fowls are desired for both meat and egg production 
some breed of the middle class may be chosen, such as the Plymouth 
Rock, Wyandotte, Javas, etc. These, while they do not attain the 
great size of the Asiatics, are sufficiently large to be reared profitably 
to supply the table with meat and at the same time have the tendency 
for egg production sufficiently to produce a goodly number of eggs 
during the year. Records of these breeds show that in egg produc- 
tion they have been hard to excel, but as a whole they do not 
compare with the so-called Mediterranean class which have such 
great tendency toward egg production. 

When choosing a breed for layers, or in fact any purpose, it is 
well to consider the cost of raising and keeping the different breeds, 
as, for instance, a Leghorn can be raised to maturity for about one- 
half that of the Asiatic varieties. 

Either Plymouth Rocks or Wyandottes make the best breed for 
the ordinary farmer. They are excellent layers, are hardy, active, 
good foragers, will stand confinement fairly well, come to maturity 
early, are large enough for a market fowl and have the yellow legs 
and skin demanded by the best trade. They also make good 
mothers. The above is upon the authority of George H. Hammond, 
of Hotchkiss, Colorado. 

Minorcas are a comparatively new breed in this country, having 
first attracted attention about fifteen years ago. They belong to the 
Mediterranean class along with the Leghorns, Spanish and Andalu- 
sians. They come in both black and white, but for some reason the 
white variety does not seem to be very popular. In size they are 
larger than the Leghorns and perhaps a little smaller that the 
Spanish. They are noticeable on account of their very large combs, 
these being larger than those of any other breed. They produce 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 447 

very large white eggs and as many of them as of any other breed 
known They are held to be somewhat sensitive to cold and care 
must be taken of them or their combs will freeze during the winter. 
They are known as "the business hen," because they are so prolific, 
and when eggs are sold by weight, if ever that time comes, they will 
take the lead of all other of the egg-leading breeds. 

The black variety is not attractive as a table fowl, but the white 
skin of the white variety makes it a very acceptable bird for table 
use. Minorcas are not widely distributed, nor have they ever been 
boomed as have other breeds, but they are growing in popularity and 
every year increase in numbers. For the southern states there is not 
a better fowl bred, as they do best in a warm country. 

Another authority prefers for all-around purposes the Black Java. 
It is claimed that for early maturity and egg production she is not 
excelled. The Java is of the same make-up as the Plymouth Rock, 
and might be called the Black Plymouth Rock. The Java is of Amer- 
ican origin, the same from which the Plymouth Rock sprung, being 
crossed with the American Dominique. 

As a general rule it may be said, when selecting breeding stock, 
choose hens more than one year old. Chicks from such hens are 
hardier and grow faster than those hatched from the eggs of pullets. 

To give the characteristics of a laying hen is rather hard, as 
neither shape nor color is any guide. However, the active, wide-awake, 
bright-eyed hen is always one which helps to fill the egg basket. 

For eggs for domestic use there should be no roosters among 300 
hens. For eggs for hatching select thirty of the best layers which 
are good specimens of their breed, put fifteen in each of two pens, 
with a grass run, and put a No. 1 rooster with each pen of fifteen hens. 

Commercial poultry certainly pays better than fancy poultry to 
the average farmer. Before one can breed the "fancy" he must be 
above the average; yet it will pay any one to get above the average 
and keep pure bred fowls. Keep your flock pure and uniform and 
you can sell eggs for hatching at a good advance over market prices, 
even if you cannot compete with the professional fancier. 

LAYING HENS AND EGGS 

Having decided upon his specialty — whether he will go into the 
business of raising laying hens, of selling his poultry outright in the 



448 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

meat market or of breeding fancy stocks — the farmer acts accord- 
ingly. This section is devoted to the egg producer. 

Again the poulterer should keep his specialty ever in mind, long 
experience having proven that the keeping of males with a flock of 
laying hens whose eggs are not to be hatched is an entirely unneces- 
sary waste of feed. It has been proven time and again that laying 
hens produce more eggs when there is no cock running with them 
than they would if mated to the most vigorous cock that ever crowed. 
The New York Experiment Station and other stations gave this 
matter exhaustive trials, and in almost every case there was a marked 
increase in the production of eggs when the flock was composed of 
hens alone. 

Another most important point: The egg produced by a hen that 
has no mate will keep many times longer than one from a hen that 
has mated with a cock. The unfertilized egg is merely a combina- 
tion of shell, white and yolk, without life or vital force any more than 
would be in the same composition if mixed in the laboratory of a 
chemist. Mate the hen and at once there is a change which no mag- 
nifying glass nor chemist's analysis can find, but which has trans- 
formed the whole nature of the egg. In warm weather this life germ 
begins to develop as the temperature rises. 

Although the process is slow and so imperfect that it would never 
produce a chick, yet it produces the sort of an action that destroys 
the life of the egg, and in this destruction comes decomposition and 
decay, and the result is a spoiled egg. If the hen had not been mated 
and the egg had not been fertilized this process would have been 
impossible, and the egg would have kept many times as long before 
becoming spoiled. For preserving, unfertile eggs are worth much 
more than those from mated hens, and for the production of eggs the 
presence of a cock is not only unnecessary but decidedly detrimental 
to their keeping qualities. 

Fall Feeding. — It is not always during the winter that eggs are the 
most profitable, for prices are frequently high during the fall months. 
To obtain the early fall supply one must depend upon intelligent 
feeding just as in the winter. The mistake is frequently made of 
keeping hens almost wholly dependent upon what they pick up on 
the range during the fall, thus prolonging the period of moulting. 
Start in by mid-September and feed all the hens that are expected to 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 449 

lay at least twice daily, and depend largely on wheat, bran or shorts 
of the kind that is white, rich and well grown. Give corn once a day. 
Chop up some beef, a few vegetables and mix with the shorts, feeding 
it to the hens while warm. Give this feed at night. It will assist the 
hens in moulting and those that have not begun to moult, or are 
through with it, will produce eggs regularly. 

It is not a good practice to feed laying hens more than they will 
eat, but during moulting time no harm comes from feeding them all 
they will eat and a little more. The young chickens cannot possibly 
be induced to eat more than is good for them, so any surplus feed 
given the flock will go to help the youngsters make size and increased 
vigor. Liberal feeding and full liberty are both good things for 
poultry in the fall. 

The Winter Poultry House. — The greatest profits in farm poultry are 
to be attained during the winter months. In order to take advantage 
of this opportunity it is necessary that the poultry be properly 
arranged and receive the right kind of management. One of the 
greatest troubles in the past with farm poultry has been that the 
general farmer is too economical in furnishing winter quarters for 
them. It matters not how well poultry is fed, or how good the quality 
of feed is, or how great the variety, if fowls have to wade around in 
the snow and hunt the sunny side of the barn to warm up the feed 
given them. The first thing is to provide proper quarters, the second 
is care and attention. There are times during the winter when fowls 
must be confined to their winter quarters, and these quarters must be 
such as will properly accommodate them. 

Properly to arrange winter quarters for poultry it is necessary to 
have three different apartments, one of which is a roosting place 
proper; another is a day house, or a scratching room, and the other 
is a yard well fenced with poultry netting to confine the fowls in 
medium fair weather and keep them from scattering and becom- 
ing exposed. This yard, of course, must be connected with the 
house, that they may choose between the two, to either stay in the 
scratching room or outside. 

The roosting house proper need not be large, and indeed should 
not be large. This apartment should be just large enough to allow 
the chicks roosting space and nothing more. This is true from the 
fact that the heat of the fowls at night will keep them comfortably 



4So PRACTICAL RECIPES 

warm, when if roosting in a large room or building they would not 
receive this benefit which is of so much importance. The roosting 
house should not have any more glass in it than will allow of enough 
light for the fowls to see to get on the roosts. This apartment may 
be so arranged by the use of ventilators that enough fresh air can be 
given at any time to suit the weather. Glass is a good conductor of 
heat in day time, and at night a conductor of cold, so keep it away 
from the roosting quarters. 

Now we come to the day house, or scratching parlor. This room 
should be also tight — no shed with the south side open. It should be 
about four or five times larger than the roosting room. On the south 
side there should be plenty of glass, the more glass the better, and if 
all that side is glass it is still better. An earth floor for this part is 
best, and a board floor for the other. This scratching parlor must 
have adjustable ventilators also. In this apartment the fowls should 
be confined during all bad weather, and they should be furnished 
with straw three or four inches deep with grain scattered in it, so 
they can be kept busy working for their "grub." 

The yard, which should be on the south side of the building, must 
not be a small pen by any means, but it should be large enough to 
make the fowls feel as though they were at liberty— perhaps a fourth 
or half acre of ground. The roosting room and the scratching room 
may be in one building, but there should be a good tight partition 
between. The roosting part should not be used for any other purpose 
except the nest boxes, which should be placed under the dropping 
boards. This room should be cleaned every morning and left in neat 
order, that the hens may step in to lay eggs. 

Simpler Houses. — If you cannot afford a winter poultry house 
made by double walls of boards and paper, or stone and brick, make 
one warm with straw or marsh hay. Build a frame of old boards or 
poles around the house as it now stands and stuff the straw between 
them — or a house banked to the eaves with manure will be warm. 
Though neither of these methods of procuring warmth will give 
beauty they will give comfort, and comfort not beauty is what makes 
the money in winter eggs. 

If no other way of procuring a warm hen house is at hand take a 
hay-knife and cut a square out of a straw stack, having an opening 
for a door on the south front — this may have a door fitted in. In 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 45' 

another opening fit a piece of glass or cotton cloth to let in light and 
you have a house that will be warm. It will also be comfortable 
when rain comes or the snow melts if the amount of straw left above 
the cut-out space is thick enough to make a water-tight roof, which 
must be had if the place is to be a healthful one. 

Winter Food. — Do not let the fowls out of their warm roosting 
quarters much before nine o'clock. Then make them a hot break- 
fast by scalding with boiling water grain that is ground up fine — oats, 
corn, or wheat, or Kaffir corn, either of which may be mixed with 
bran. It is not necessary thoroughly to cook the feed, but pour the 
boiling water on it, thoroughly stir it and put in just enough water so 
that when well stirred up it is a dry, crumby mass, and by no means 
make it sloppy. Give them a good breakfast of this, but not quite as 
much as they will eat. Always use a well-made trough to feed this 
in. Feed nothing during the day but a little grain scattered in the 
straw, as mentioned, and about four o'clock in the evening give them 
all they will eat of good, sound grain, changing variety as often as 
possible. Feed meat scraps once a week, grit and crushed oyster 
shells all the time, good fresh water — no ice in it — twice a day, and 
allow a dust bath always at their pleasure. 

If soft-shelled eggs appear in the poultry house during the winter 
the proper thing to do is to cut down the feed — the morning feed, 
not the one which is given in the afternoon. Soft-shelled eggs are 
almost positive proof that the hens are too fat, and the best way to 
get rid of the fat is to make the hens work it off in the scratching 
material. For the morning feed not more than one handful of wheat 
to ten hens should be given as long as soft-shelled eggs are found in 
the nests. 

On the whole cabbage appears to be the best vegetable food for 
laying hens in winter. Carefully conducted experiments have clearly 
demonstrated that it is superior to cut clover. The best way to feed 
the cabbage is to suspend it by a cord from the ceiling of the poultry 
house, and let the hens pick it to pieces. It is often recommended 
to place it high enough above the floor to compel the hens to jump 
up a foot or more in order to reach it, but we should prefer to place 
it at a convenient height for the hens and provide other ways for 
giving them exercise. 

Cut Bone and Charcoal. — -One pound of cut bone for a dozen hens a 



452 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

day, which should not cost over one cent a pound, will produce more 
eggs than five times as much grain, because the cut bone is complete 
in egg-making substances, while the grain is largely deficient in many 
respects. Some persons affirm that it does not pay to procure a bone 
cutter for a small flock. That is a mistake. Bone cutters are now 
cheaper than many ordinary garden tools, and are strong, durable 
and efficient. The cost of the bone cutter is soon regained in the 
increased number of eggs laid. It is almost indispensable to success, 
no matter how small the flock, for no one should keep a flock unless 
fully determined to secure the largest profit possible. 

The great saving of bones and meat and the utilization of mate- 
rials that could not be appropriated as food for fowls without their 
use have given bone cutters a place on all well regulated poultry 
farms. They are sold at from $5 to $10 — a price which places them 
within the reach of all — and they have added to the profits of poul- 
trymen, farmers, butchers and poultry-supply houses. 

Your fowls need more or less charcoal, and charred corn on cobs 
is an excellent way to give it to them. Place a few ears in the oven 
and keep them there until they are burned black to the cob. Corn 
charcoal can thus be made as wanted, and the older and dryer the 
corn the easier it will be to make it and the better it will be. Feed 
to the fowls what they will eat of it, for they will take but a small 
portion of it, more especially at the first feeding. As a corrective of 
injudicious feeding and as a remedy for bowel trouble and preventive 
of indigestion charcoal has but few equals. It may be fed every 
other day. 

Effect of Food on Consistency and Flavor. — Any one who has 
observed eggs closely has noticed that some eggs have what poultry- 
men call greater consistency than others. That is, out of a dozen 
eggs bought at a store half may have thick whites, and yolks that 
stand up in an almost hemispherical shape when broken and turned 
out of the shell, while the other half will have whites and yolks so 
thin that they will spread out thin and wide and be almost flat. 

This is the effect of the feed given the hens producing the eggs. 
Hens that are allowed to pick up their living about the manure pile 
produce eggs with thin yolks and whites, and these eggs are invari- 
ably insipid and tasteless, and when boiled or poached are not exactly 
appetizing. There is a flavor about such eggs that is not altogether 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 453 

pleasant in any case, and often it is positively repulsive to one who 
understands that this flavor comes from eating impure feed. 

Take a lot of hens and feed them milk and grain and their eggs 
are firm and consistent, and they have a flavor that makes them 
relished by the most fastidious. The grit and grain furnish the 
mineral constituents and the albuminous portion, in connection with 
the milk, and the combination is one that makes good eggs. Hens 
fed exclusively on grain do not produce eggs of the best flavor, but 
their eggs are infinitely better than those from hens that must depend 
altogether on themselves for their living. 

The quality of eggs depends altogether on the feed the hens eat, 
and where this is understood consistent eggs are valued as being 
worth twice as much as those lacking consistency. 

"Housewives who use many eggs, and all who habitually eat them 
boiled, also know that there is much difference in the flavor of even 
those which are undeniably fresh," says a United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture bulletin. "There is a very general belief that 
the flavor is influenced by the feed which the hens receive and the 
materials possessing strong flavors, like onions, turnips, etc., impart 
an injurious flavor to the eggs. The truth of this belief was shown 
by recent experiments at the North Carolina Station. 

"Chopped wild onion tops and bulbs were fed to hens and the 
length of time before there was a change in the flavor of the eggs 
was noted, as well as the length of time which must elapse after 
onion feeding was discontinued before the objectionable flavor would 
disappear. At the beginning of the trial a half ounce of chopped 
onion tops per head daily was fed to twelve hens of different breeds. 
Repeated tests did not show any onion flavor in the eggs until the 
fifteenth day when it was distinctly noticeable. The amount of onion 
fed was doubled for four days and then discontinued. 

"The eggs laid while the larger amount of onion was fed were so 
strongly flavored that they could not be used. After discontinuing 
the feeding of onions the flavor became less noticeable, and in a 
week the eggs were of normal flavor. The main point brought out by 
the tests was that flavor can be fed into eggs. Therefore, it appears 
that to insure finely flavored eggs it is necessary to restrict runs so 
that no considerable amount of food which will produce badly 
flavored eggs can be obtained. 



454 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

"Some years ago the New York Cornell Station, in studying the 
effect of nitrogenous versus carbonaceous food for poultry, reported 
observations on the effect of the different rations on the flavor of 
eggs. One lot of fowls was fed a mixture of wheat shorts, cotton-seed 
meal and skim milk, another lot cracked corn and corn dough. The 
former ration contained much more nitrogen than the latter. The hens 
fed corn laid fewer eggs than those fed the nitrogenous ration, but the 
eggs were larger. The eggs produced by the nitrogenous ration were of 
a disagreeable flavor and smell, had a small yolk and did not keep well." 

Egg-eaters and How to Cure Them. — The hen which habitually lays 
her eggs on the floor of the poultry house or in the scratching pen 
should be killed. If she is not made away with the owner will find a 
flock of egg-eaters on his hands before the winter is over. A certain 
proportion of the pullets when they first begin to lay will refuse to 
use the nesting-boxes. If caught when discovered making a nest on 
the floor and penned in one of the boxes it will usually break up the 
habit of depositing the egg on the floor. But one will be found now 
and then which will obstinately refuse to lay elsewhere but on the 
floor. When all other persuasion and argument tail the hatchet 
will be the only remedy left. 

Undoubtedly the habit begins in most cases by the accidental 
breaking of an egg on the floor or in the nest, but it rapidly spreads 
among the flock until a large proportion of the eggs laid are pur- 
posely broken and eaten by the hens. The heavy breeds of fowls 
are most subject to this habit because they more frequently break 
their eggs by stepping upon them than do lighter birds. When an 
egg is broken it is too tempting a morsel to be left in the nest. The 
hen not only eats it but often carries large pieces of the shell about 
the house or grounds, pursued by other members of the flock, each 
of which wants a portion. In this manner a number of individuals 
soon learn how appetizing are eggs and egg shells, and each in turn 
becomes a teacher to others. 

It is plain that whatever conditions contribute to the breaking of 
eggs in the nests may be considered as causes of the habit. Thin- 
shell eggs are easily broken, and hence a deficiency of shell-forming 
constituents in the ration may be the cause. In other cases an egg 
may be broken for want of sufficient straw in the nest to protect it 
from direct contact with the wood. 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 455 

To guard against the formation of the egg-eating habit the fowls 
should have plenty of lime, oyster shells, bone, or similar substances 
to ensure a firm shell upon the eggs. The nests should be properly 
supplied with straw and artificial nest eggs should be used. In this 
way the danger of breaking eggs is reduced to a minimum. It is also 
well to have the nests rather dark so that if an egg is accidentally 
broken the hen will not discover it. 

When the habit has been once acquired these precautions are not 
always sufficient, and it may be necessary to construct the nests so 
that there is just room enough in them for the hens, or so that the 
eggs will roll beyond the reach of the fowls. Some people place arti- 
ficial eggs in the nests and about the house so that the hen may pick 
at them and get the idea that they are no longer able to break egg 
shells. Others blow out the contents of a few eggs through a small 
hole in the shell and fill the space with a paste consisting largely of 
mustard, capsicum, aloes, or other disagreeable compounds, and leave 
these where the hens will find them. Under any circumstances it is 
best to remove the egg-eaters from the remainder of the flock, and 
unless they are very valuable to kill them for the table. 

Care and Preservation of Eggs. — There are general rules which must 
always be followed in the care and preservation of eggs, but these 
rules, as all special directions and recipes, apply only to infertile eggs. 
No method will succeed with fertilized eggs. 

i. For a thing which seems well protected from odors and gases 
an egg is extremely sensitive to them. Eggs should, therefore, be 
kept in a good atmosphere. 

2. Keep the eggs as near forty degrees as possible, but seventy is 
not too high. In other words, keep them in a cool place in summer 
and do not let them freeze in winter. The cooler you keep them the 
better. 

3. Eggs, too, which are kept longer than a few days should be 
turned frequently. When an egg rests in one position too long the 
yolk sinks to the bottom of the shell, the air works through the pores 
of the shell, attacks the animal matter (the yolk) and decay sets in 
The turning of the eggs has been found to be the most practical 
method of avoiding this, and should be done at least twice a week. 
For this purpose either a box or turning tray should be provided. 

4. Assort your eggs when taken out for sale, separating the dark 



456 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ones from the light ones. Some markets prefer one kind and some 
another. Boston prefers brown eggs, New York white, Chicago 
restaurants want brown eggs to boil, while most private families 
prefer the white. 

5. Wash them clean in warm water before preserving, and do the 
same when taking them out. 

Although we have given several methods simply to lay them 
before our readers we recommend only the method of placing eggs 
on racks, turning them twice or three times a week, and keeping 
them in a cool place. We term this the rack method. 

Special Preservatives. — For many years experiments all over the 
world have been conducted to determine what are the best artificial 
preservatives for eggs. As there is so much difference of opinion 
on this point we give some of the most important results as reached 
especially by some of the experiment stations of the United States. 

A few of the methods of packing eggs dry for keeping have been 
tried at the New York Experiment Station and reported upon. 
When fresh the eggs were wiped with a rag saturated with fat or oil 
which had been mixed with some antiseptic, and were packed tightly 
in salt, bran, etc. Eggs packed in salt during April or May, which 
had been wiped with cottonseed oil to which had been added boracic 
acid, kept from four to five months with a loss of nearly one-third, 
the quality of those served not being good. Eggs packed in bran 
after the same preliminary handling were all spoiled after four 
months. Eggs packed in salt during March and April, after wiping 
with vaseline to which salicylic acid had been added, kept for four or 
five months without a loss; the quality was much superior to that of 
any ordinary limed eggs. These packed eggs were kept in a barn 
cellar, the temperature of which varied from sixty degrees to seventy 
degrees Fahrenheit, and each box was turned once every two days. 

Of the many methods adopted for preserving eggs experiments 
made at the North Dakota and Montana Stations go to show that 
the water glass method is very successful. Water glass is a very 
cheap product, that can usually be produced at not to exceed fifty 
cents per gallon, and one gallon would make enough solution to 
preserve fifty dozen eggs, so that the cost of the material of this 
method would be only about one cent per dozen. Water glass is 
sodium and potassium silicate, sodium silicate being usually the 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 457 

cheaper. If wooden kegs or barrels are to be used in which to pack 
the eggs they should first be thoroughly scalded with boiling water 
to sweeten and purify them. In preparing the water glass use only 
pure water that has been boiled and allowed to cool. Pack only 
strictly fresh eggs and set them away in a cool dark place; a dry 
cellar will answer. 

In reporting its experiments the Montana Station states that the 
mixtures used to test the relative value of salt and lime mixtures and 
water glass were: 

No. 1. — Lime, fresh, three and one-half pounds; salt, four and 
three-quarters pounds; water, eight gallons. 

No. 2. — Water glass, one part water glass to eighteen parts water. 

The eggs remained in the solution for six months. When exam- 
ined the water glass was found to be the best pickle, although the 
lime and salt served its purpose very well; still the whites of the eggs 
preserved in this mixture were much more watery than the whites of 
those preserved in the water glass. These were difficult to distin- 
guish from fresh eggs, since the white was quite firm and the yolk 
stood up upon it just as though fresh. 

Another advantage claimed for the water glass was that it did not 
seem to affect the shell of the egg as did the lime mixture, eggs from 
the lime and salt mixture being much more liable to crack either in 
cooking or handling. 

Recent experiments with several kinds of egg preservatives have 
brought out the strong points of vaseline and lime water. The eggs 
are coated with vaseline and placed in lime water. It is reported 
that several cases thus treated came out in first-rate condition in Feb- 
ruary, having been stored in July. 

Twenty grains salicylic acid in one gill of cottonseed oil (or lard) 
is also given as a composition for greasing the eggs slightly in order 
to prevent evaporation before packing. 

Experiments have recently been made in Germany on the com- 
parative excellence of different prescriptions for preserving eggs for 
long periods. Fresh eggs laid in June were subjected to the various 
treatments till the following February — eight months. Of one 
hundred eggs treated in each manner a certain number were found 
to be addled as follows: Preserved in salt water, 100 bad; wrapped 
in paper, 80 bad; bathed in a mixture of glycerine and salicylic acid, 



458 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

80 bad; rubbed with salt, 70 bad; covered with paraffin, 70 bad; 
plunged for fifteen seconds into boiling water, 50 bad; plunged in an 
alum solution, 50 bad; plunged in a salicylic acid solution, 50 bad; 
varnished with silicate of potash, 40 bad; varnished with collodion, 
40 bad; covered with lard, 20 bad; covered with vaseline, o bad; pre- 
served in lime water, o bad; preserved in a solution of silicate of 
potash, o bad. 

BREEDING POULTRY 

Whatever object the farmer may have in view, whether eggs or 
marketable poultry, it will be to his advantage to have well-developed, 
fully matured birds. And he'cannot have such birds without giving 
them time to attain their growth. It will not be necessary for him to 
do all his hatching in March, or even a considerable portion of it, but 
a brood or two brought out at that time will be an object lesson 
which will have no little weight in keeping him from the other 
extreme. 

As has before been stated every farmer or poultry raiser should 
have a place where he can separate a few of his best hens for breed- 
ing purposes. In most cases seven or eight hens will lay all the eggs 
wanted for hatching purposes and then only one male is needed, and 
the keeper can afford to buy one of the better quality and make more 
rapid progress in the improvement of the flock. 

An Egg Tester is quite a useful contrivance and as it can be bought 
for fifty cents or less no one who raises chickens should be without 
one. In the early spring when fertile eggs are scarce and broody 
hens are in great demand it will be often found that not more than 
half the eggs will hatch. If this can be ascertained on the eighth day 
all the fertile eggs can be given in charge of one hen, when two have 
been set on the same day, and the other hen furnished a fresh lot. If 
a practice is made of setting the hens in pairs it easily can be seen 
what a saving of hens this will be, as well as gain in the size of the 
broods. For when you know to a certainty that a hen has a nestful 
of eggs under her, every one of which contains a live chick in process 
of development, you can safely calculate on good hatches if the hen 
and her owner do their duty. 

But no one can tell until the egg has been tried whether it will be 
fertile. After the egg has been under a hen or in an incubator one 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 439 

day any one with experience can tell to a certainty if it will hatch 
unless it be a very dark colored egg, when it is often impossible to 
tell at so early a date. Take a white egg that has been incubated 
for one day and if it is fertile a test will show a reddish spot in the 
center and the blood veins can be seen radiating from the central 
spot. Gradually the contents become darker until the whole egg 
seems dark except the air bubble, which slowly grows larger until at 
last it occupies one-third the space in the shell. After a little experi- 
ence the operator can determine quite exactly what eggs will hatch 
and what ones will not. 

A tester may be made by making a cone of thick paper large 
enough at the largest end to admit an egg sidewise and leaving an 
eye hole at the other. With one hand hold the egg in the larger 
end so no light can come between it and the tester and look through 
the smaller end toward a strong light from a window or at a lamp in 
a darkened room. 

Eggs for Hatching Purposes should receive the best care possible. 
The eggs should promptly be gathered every day, and if the weather 
is cold they should be cared for about as often as they are laid 
Fresh eggs just laid will give a better hatch than if older. While we 
may get a fair hatch from eggs a week or two old yet it is not the 
rule. It is bad policy for those who ship eggs for hatching purposes 
to send out anything but fresh eggs, for eggs two or three weeks old 
do not bear shipping as well as fresh ones, and in most cases do not 
hatch well. Eggs for shipping long distances should be fresh, and if 
this rule were followed strictly we would have much better hatches. 

When shipped for hatching they should not be at once put under 
the hen or in the incubator, but should remain at least twelve hours 
to become settled into natural position after being taken up in transit. 

The eggs should be kept in a temperature of from fifty to sixty 
degrees, and if turned everyday will remain much longer in a perfect 
state for hatching. The eggs should not be packed in any material 
that will not freely allow the air to get at them. Every one should 
have an egg case in which to keep the eggs for hatching, and those 
having a turning device find it is exceedingly convenient. 

The Hen and Her Brood. — Whether it is best to use the hen or the 
incubator in the hatching of the eggs is a question largely determined 
by natural and financial conditions; but since the hen was '"first upon 



4 6o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the ground" we give a few general directions as to the care of the 
mother and her brood, offered by P. W. Hearn, of Indiana: 

"After hatching leave the chicks undisturbed in the nest twenty- 
four hours at least. Their first feed should be bread baked in the 
oven until it will crumble. Cut it in small slices, as it will crumble 
sooner. Put this in a pan and mash it with the potato masher until it 
is quite fine. Then make it moist, not sloppy, with milk. A hard 
boiled egg and an onion chopped fine and mixed with the bread now 
and then gives them a better appetite. If they need more exercise 
throw them a few scraps of meat small enough so that they can carry 
them around. This will not only furnish exercise for the chicks but 
amusement for the feeder." 

After being kept on this food for a week granulated oatmeal or 
small particles of cracked corn may be added. At the end of two 
weeks, and not before, whole meat may be fed along with the other 
food. 

If a chick gets stunted during the first five weeks of its existence 
it will never make a good market fowl. They should be pushed on 
at all times, but require particular attention during the time 
mentioned. Young stock requires frequent but light feeding. 

Chicks as well as old hens should always have a supply of grit. 
The grit should be sharp, as round stones will not grind. 

The hen and brood should be placed in a dry coop on tne grass, 
where the young chicks can get at the grass whenever the weather 
permits. If kept indoors the chicks must be kept on earth or on 
boards covered with earth. Experience has taught that if not so 
kept disaster will follow. 

The Incubator. — The use of incubators dates back about a dozen 
years, and the apparatus is naturally not yet perfect. Those who 
operate them are also liable to make mistakes, one of the most 
common, according to a writer in the Farmer s Voice, being that of 
keeping the incubator at too high a temperature and not giving the 
eggs a chance to cool. The same authority also remarks: 

"Never have we seen a set of directions for running an incubator 
that said a word about keeping the small end of the egg the lowest, 
and yet this is an important point. If the eggs are allowed to lie with 
the point the highest the chick is very often found to be malformed, 
and as often fails to get out of the shell at all. During the early part 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 461 

of the period of incubation the embryo chick lies at the highest side 
of the shell. Turn the egg and immediately the chick shifts its posi- 
tion and rises to the top. If the smallest end of the egg is lowest the 
chick's head is next the air bubble in the large end of the egg and in 
its natural position. If the small end is the highest the head of the 
chick gets in the small end of the shell away from the air bubble, and 
when it has grown so large that it does not turn as the eggs are 
turned it grows into the wrong shape and often dies in the shell, or 
if it gets out is not well formed. In turning the eggs in incubators 
always place the small ends the lowest by hand after the eggs are 
turned. This allows them to cool down and fresh air gets into the 
bubble and the chick gets a fresh supply of oxygen to support it for 
the next twenty-four hours." 

P. H. Hearn, the Indiana poultry man, has laid down general 
rules for testing an incubator, which are offered as the best we have 
seen: 

An incubator that requires attention oftener than twice a day is of 
little value. 

A good incubator is never cooled and heated by the opening of a 
valve that allows a draft to pass through the egg chamber. It should 
have thick walls, so that the outside temperature will not affect the 
inside temperature. 

If a hot air machine, the walls ought to be from four to six inches 
thick, and made of a good non-conductor of heat. If a hot water 
machine, they need not be more than two-thirds as thick, but like- 
wise should be of a double wall, filled with a good non-conductor of 
heat. 

The regulator should be simple but accurate — no electric regula- 
tors, or any kind of clock work. 

It is not desirable to have a single door with glass in it, for the 
glass is a good conductor of heat. If a glass door is used an outer 
heavy door should always accompany it. 

You will find two classes of machines — one that heats with hot air, 
while the other heats with hot water. Each has its advantages over 
the other. A hot water incubator if not watched may begin to leak 
in the middle of a hatch and spoil the hatch, but it has the power to 
hold heat for a long time if the lamps should happen to go out. The 
hot air machine soon cools unless it has very good non-conducting 



462 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

walls when the lamps go out, but is heated in a few minutes. As far 
as hatching is concerned the heat from either is just alike and will 
hatch the same. 

Look at the record of the machine and see what it has done. If 
a machine cannot obtain a few awards, at least, it should not be 
bought. Do not be mislead by glowing testimonials, but write to six 
or seven of those who claim to have used it and have them send a 
record of the results of their own operations. 

A beginner has no need of a larger machine than one that 
holds two hundred eggs; one hundred and fifty-egg size would be 
better. 

The Brooder. — When removing the chicks from the incubator to 
the brooder throw a flannel cloth over them, as they are very sensi- 
tive when first out of the shell. 

About every one who ever used a brooder agrees that they are of 
more value than an incubator in the poultry yard. We can get along 
without an incubator, for it is not very much trouble to get chickens 
hatched by hens, but the man who undertakes to take care of the 
number of clucking hens that it is necessary to have to rear two 
hundred chickens will have his hands pretty full. 

The two essential things for a brooder house are warmth and 
light, and these can be secured by anyone who tries to get them. A 
cheap brooder is thus described: The house is six feet wide and 
fourteen feet long and faces the south. On the south side a row of 
windows extends the entire length of the building, so as to catch the 
sun from morning to evening. These windows swing in on hinges 
when it is desirable to open them, and by opening one at each end 
the air can be purified in a few minutes without creating a draught 
that will strike the chickens. The building is made of cheap flooring, 
ceiled inside with the same, and under both ceiling and weather 
boarding is a coat of tar paper. Practically it is an air tight box, and 
is warm and comfortable without artificial heat, except from the 
brooder lamp, almost every day in the year. The brooder extends 
along the north side, and in it the chicks keep perfectly comfortable 
no matter how cold the weather may be. They can run out and eat, 
and as soon as they feel the least chilly they run back under their 
cover. The whole cost of this house is under $30, and it will hold 
three hundred chickens until old enough to take out of the brooder. 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 463 

Chicks and Their Care. — Do not be in haste to feed your little chicks 
after they have been hatched, but let them remain under the mother 
hen until the second day thereafter. You greatly injure little chicks 
by removing them from under the hen and away from their nest too 
soon. It would be better to allow them to remain in the nest with- 
out food for forty-eight hours if the mother hen is content to set on 
them that length of time. Chicks thus treated will come off the nest 
vigorous and strong and will relish their first feed. 

Perhaps there' are more little chicks injured by kindness than any- 
thing else, especially if you are hatching some fine thoroughbreds in 
which you are taking special interest. Bowel trouble after the chicks 
are a day or two old is the cause of the greatest loss, and this is 
brought on principally by overfeeding. We read a great deal about 
overfeeding laying fowls, but we do not hear enough said about over- 
feeding little chicks, which is as great an evil. 

Let the little chicks get hungry and cry for food and you will have 
chicks that will grow and be healthy. Do not feed so much that they 
cannot eat it all up clean in a short time. 

Do not forget grit from the start. Perhaps the first thing to do is 
to procure some clean sand, sprinkle it in the bottom of the box you 
put them in, then scatter your feed on this sand and the little chicks 
will get it. The poultry supply houses have chick grit for sale. Egg 
shells make a pretty fair substitute for it if it is not readily obtained. 
Place the shells in the oven of the kitchen stove and subject them to 
a slow heat until they are thoroughly dried. They will then be quite 
brittle and can be crushed into small particles. Place some of this 
near the coop where the chicks can get at it every day. It will save 
the lives of many youngsters which would otherwise fall victims to 
stomach and bowel troubles. 

Hard boiled eggs are considered by many poultry raisers the best 
substance to feed chicks the first week after they are hatched. The 
infertile eggs which are tested out on the eighth day are reserved for 
feeding in this manner. An infertile egg will not undergo any 
change within the eight days that would make it unfit food for the 
chicks. The eggs should be boiled at least half an hour and the 
chicks should be given what they will eat of it once a day. After ten 
days they may be given cracked corn and wheat and the eggs discon- 
tinued. 



464 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

NEAT AND FEATHERS 

In the preparation of poultry for the market fowls should be left 
without food for twelve hours before beipg killed, so that the crop 
may be empty. 

Then suspend each one by the feet, and with a sharp-pointed 
knife cut a deep gash in the roof of the mouth at the base of the 
brain. Plucking should begin at once, all the large feathers being 
removed by the time the fowl is dead. 

The pin feathers can then be easily removed. Do not remove 
crop or intestines. Carefully wash the mouth and remove all blood 
clots. Do not singe, and by all means do not tear the skin. Let 
them hang in a cool place until the animal heat is out, then pack in 
layers in box or barrel if intended for shipment. 

If a great number are to be dressed the feathers should be saved, 
as they will bring from five cents to seven cents a pound when dry 
picked. Chicken feathers are growing in demand, especially the dry- 
picked. 

Cost of Producing Chicken Neat — It costs about five cents a pound 
to make a chicken weigh five pounds. At that time there is about 
the same weight of bones, feathers and entrails to be found as in a 
fowl weighing ten pounds. Such a fowl is not a cheap one to buy, 
nor a profitable one to sell. The same fowl fed to its utmost will 
weigh, say eight pounds, the increase being almost altogether meat. 

Some figures worked out at the Ottawa, Canada, Experiment farm 
will be of interest: Ninety ordinary chickens were bought in the 
market. Three of these were killed and weighed with the feathers 
off eight and one-half pounds. After being dressed for cooking they 
weighed five pounds and two ounces, after being cooked and cooled 
two days they weighed three and one-half pounds. 

After being fattened thirty-six days three other fowls of the same 
flock were killed, and these weighed with the feathers off sixteen and 
one-fourth pounds. When ready to cook they weighed eleven pounds 
and six ounces, and after two days' cooling nine pounds and two 
ounces. 

After deducting for the bones there was left seven pounds and six 
ounces of meat as against two pounds and six ounces of bone-free 
meat in those first killed. They had grown five pounds of meat to 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 465 

eleven ounces of bone while being fattened. They were worth 
six cents a pound when first bought, and were worth ten cents a pound 
at the end of the experiment. In this case to add five pounds of 
meat had cost thirteen cents for feed. 

Fattening Cockerels. — In the raising of poultry for meat there are 
few branches of the industry more profitable if properly conducted 
than the caponizing and fattening of cockerels. September is about 
the time when the cockerels of the last spring's hatch are ready for 
caponizing, and if they are operated on they will bring about five 
times as much the next spring as if sold in their first fall and pay for 
the feed they eat besides. The flesh of the capon is always as sweet 
and tender as that of a well-fattened spring chicken, as it never takes 
enough exercise to harden its muscles. 

To caponize a cockerel is not a serious matter. The tools cost 
$2.50, and it is an easy matter to learn how to use them. The direc- 
tions that go with the tools are so plain that any one can understand 
them, and after a little practice do as well as the most expert. It is 
best to practice on a freshly killed chicken before beginning on a 
living one. If in the operation a mistake is made and the bird oper- 
ated on dies no harm is done, as it simply bleeds to death the same 
as it would if its head were cut off, and is just as good for the table 
as it would have been if killed in the regulation way. When a 
mistake is made the bird dies in a few minutes from the loss of blood 
and should be dressed for use at once. Capons are coming into 
favor in the west, while for a good many years the Philadelphia 
capon has had a national reputation. 

DISEASES AND PESTS 

Like all other domestic animals chickens are subject to many dis- 
eases similar to those which afflict man. Some of them are caused 
by unhealthy food or exposure and others by the presence of living 
pests, which lodge in different parts of the body. The most import- 
ant of these are mentioned below with their remedies. 

We are apt to be a little careless rather than double our efforts in 
the care of poultry in midsummer. The most critical time with both 
old and young poultry begins about the first of June and continues up 
to the month of September or until all have moulted. They contract 
more diseases during this period than in all the rest of the year put 



466 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

together. It is then that cholera makes its appearance, and then 
that roup gets its start. 

Roup. — Wet, dirty, little coops that little chicks are kept in over 
night are conductive to roup, and when once it gets a hold on grow- 
ing chicks it stays with them, and becoming well established in the 
flock is like whooping cough in children — stays until warm weather 
comes in again in the spring. During the winter is when it gets in 
its worst effects, changing to different forms, all of which are fatal. 
When once it gets hold on a flock it is almost impossible to check it 
without complete extermination, so the thing to do is to not let it get 
a start. If your old birds have had this trouble keep them entirely 
separate from your young growing chicks from the time they are 
hatched. Better after the breeding season sell the last old bird off if 
you cannot keep them apart from the growing chicks. 

Roup Remedies. — One part perchloride iron to three parts pure 
glycerine, mixed. Administer thus: Take a small brush, and 
dipping in above mixture swab the mouth of the sick bird from two 
to three times daily until cured, giving dose of rhubarb or castor oil 
every other day while using. Wash off nostrils and under wings with 
a solution of carbolic acid, as there is no use in trying to cure a bird 
when some of the poison is left sticking to him. Isolate from other 
fowls. 

Glycerite of tannin is also used and is made by dissolving a troy 
ounce of tannic acid in four fluid ounces of glycerine by gently heat- 
ing. For roup anoint the head and inside of the mouth with 
glycerite. 

Chicken Cholera invariably kills inside of forty-eight hours. Fowls 
suffering with a severe attack of diarrhea are too often supposed to 
have cholera. This mistake is especially likely to be made if a 
number in the same yard are affected in the same way at the same 
time. Such trouble is often nothing more than indigestion, and while 
alarming in its aspects is something altogether distinct from cholera. 
It is brought on by improper food, or food of one kind to which the 
flock has been too long restricted. A complete change in the plan 
of feeding will often cause the trouble to entirely disappear inside of 
a week. Chicken cholera proper is an uncommon disease. Not one- 
half the cases which are so reported are in reality that dreaded 
scourge. 



CHICKENS AND EGGS 467 

In treating it the poultry house should first be thoroughly cleansed, 
the rubbish from nest and floor burned, and a whitewash applied of 
freshly burned lime with about a dessertspoonful of crude carbolic 
acid to each pailful. This should be done while the whitewash is still 
hot, so as to utilize the germicidal quality of fresh lime. The roosts, 
yard and every available spot should be disinfected with a spray of 
carbolic acid and water at the rate of about a tablespoonful to the 
pailful. Fresh dust with carbolic acid should then be put in the 
scratching boxes and the drinking water carbolized, about a tea- 
spoonful to the gallon. 

So much for disinfection; now for the remedies: A teaspoonful 
of asafetida and a dessertspoonful of epsom salts are thoroughly 
mixed with the soft food — enough for a flock of twenty-five. The 
birds that do not want to eat are dosed with salts and asafetida and 
placed in the sunlight. At intervals of about a week two other dis- 
infectants are given. 

Gapes are caused by a little worm that finds lodgment in the wind- 
pipe of the young fowls. The origin of the gape worm is not fully 
decided upon, but it is known that it comes out of the ground and is 
picked up by the young fowls, and immediately takes up its residence 
where it can do the most damage. When gapes once appear on a 
farm they are likely to be found there year after year, and of two 
farms lying side by side gape worm may be plentiful on one and 
unknown on the other. 

The best remedy is prevention. The young fowls pick these 
worms off the grass in the early morning. As soon as the dew dries 
off the worms crawl down into the soil and stay there until the sun is 
down. If young fowls are kept shut up until the grass is dry they will 
not be troubled with the gapes. Young fowls reared in a brooder 
never suffer from gapes, because they do not run in the wet grass 
early in the morning. 

When the fowl is suffering from the attacks of the worm take a 
wing feather of a hen and strip it except a little brush at the end. 
Open the mouth very wide and run the feather down the windpipe 
and twist it around several times. This usually dislodges the worm 
and it is drawn out with the feather, at least into the throat, where it 
is swallowed and can do no more harm. 

For very young chicks, whose windpipes are so small that this 



468 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

treatment cannot be applied, many recommend the rubbing of the 
neck with vaseline or lard thoroughly mixed with a little turpentine 
(three parts of lard or vaseline to one of turpentine). Treatment 
should be given before the disease makes its appearance. Care 
should be taken, however, in applying the remedy. Don't get too 
much turpentine in. Pure turpentine will quickly dispatch a chick, 
which is by no means a desideratum. 

The oil of sassafras has proven a fine preventive and cure for the 
gapes. Put a few drops in the food and drop a drop down the wind- 
pipe of those badly affected. 

Lice and Mites. — Aside from the application of dust, lice may be 
destroyed by the absorption through the pores of the powerful odors 
of several kinds of mineral and vegetable oils. This is the secret of 
the success of various "lice killers" now on the market. They are 
meritorious and effect the desired purpose when properly applied. 

Among the oils used for this purpose kerosene or common lamp 
oil is one of the very best. It also is comparatively cheap and 
usually at hand. It is applied to the roosting perches, which are kept 
soaked with it, in the nest boxes beneath the straw and in the 
corners of the boxes, where it cannot get on the eggs; in the bottom 
and insides of the brood coops and on the shanks of the hens with 
the chicks. It is not necessary to apply it to the little chicks. They 
get it sufficiently strong from the coop, the shanks and feathers of 
the mother hen. 

Oil for this purpose is really more effective than dust, for the 
reason that the odor of the oil is the more penetrating. It reaches 
the lice where the dust often misses them. Hence the popularity of 
the "lice killers," show the great value of strong odors and their 
effectiveness in killing lice in poultry. 

If mites bother the nests give the sitting hen a good dusting of 
insect powder a day or two before you want to set her; if they are in 
the nest boxes take out all the straw and put a little crude carbolic 
acid, dabbed about, in the box, enough to make a good strong smell. 
Do this the day before you want to set the hen, so that the freshest 
of the smell may evaporate and be gone before the warm body of 
the hen hovers down over it, causing it to come up through the eggs 
stronger than ever. Paint the roosts also, if mites are on them. 

Crop-bound Hen. — Every keeper of poultry occasionally has a crop- 



CHICKENS AND EGOS 469 

bound hen on his hands. Hens in this condition will invariably die if 
the owner does not come to their assistance and relieve them of the 
impaction. And this can nearly always be done successfully. 

Dissolve a heaping teaspoonful of soda in a teacup of water; pour 
a spoonful down the bird's throat, at the same time gently manipulate 
the mass in the crop with the fingers. In four hours give a spoonful 
of sweet oil. If this does not overcome the trouble make an incision 
an inch long into the crop and empty out the contents. Sew up the 
opening, being careful to put a separate set of stitches in the inner 
and outer skin. The two must not be sewed together. Put the bird 
in a pen to itself and feed on soft food for a week. The operation 
will be a success in almost every instance. 

Scaly Leg is something which is very apt to show itself on fowls 
over a year old. It can easily be prevented if taken in time, and 
nothing is better for the purpose than kerosene and lard. If the 
evidences of the disease are already visible one treatment will not be 
sufficient to effect a cure, but should be repeated at first once every 
two weeks, and then every month, until the legs are smooth and clean. 



CHAPTER XVII 
TURKEYS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND PIGEONS 

The Feather Business — Turkeys and How to Raise Them — Ducks the Hardiest 
of Poultry — Profit in Qrowing Them— Selection and Care of Breeding 
Birds — The Value of Geese — Squabs as "Quail on Toast." 

There are few farmers who are not to some extent poulterers, and 
although their chickens and eggs are the main issue in this line, the 
raising of turkeys, ducks, geese and pigeons often forms a profitable 
side issue and goes far toward supplying the women with their pin 
money. When Thanksgiving comes around the farmer can congrat- 
ulate himself that he has given a little attention to this form of 
poultry raising, being able to supply his own table as well as sell to 
his less thoughtful or enterprising neighbors. Not a few people also 
much prefer a roast duck or goose to a turkey, while duck eggs are 
also very highly esteemed by many. The supplying of feathers to 
the trade is also an inducement to raise ducks and geese not to be 
overlooked. The raising of squabs, or young pigeons, is becoming a 
most profitable industry, especially in the neighborhood of large 
cities, where there are many extensive breeding establishments 
engaged in supplying the large demand for "quail on toast." 

The Feather Business. — Farmers used to throw away their feathers; 
now the feather business has grown to one of gigantic proportions. 
It is a well known fact that large numbers of poultry are imported 
each year, but it is not so well known that feathers are also imported. 
It is nevertheless true. Feathers are imported into this country from 
almost every civilized country in the world, different kinds coming 
from different countries. China leads in the cheap grades of feathers 
and sends more pounds than any other country, which are mostly duck 
feathers. There is one thing about these feathers that is not very 
pleasing to the importer, which is the fact that nearly two-fifths of 

470 



TURKEYS, DUCKS, GEESE, AND PIGEONS 471 

the stock is dirt. The better grades of feathers come from Ger- 
many, Austria and Russia, and are goose feathers. Feathers come 
from far-away Palestine, from the North Sea, and from Norway and 
Siberia. 

From the northern countries we get what is known as Eider-down. 
This does not separate like the ordinary down, but sticks together 
like nettles, and a pound of it is as large as a bushel measure. It is 
the product of the wild Eider-duck, and in color is a brownish gray. 
The price ranges from $6 to $7.50 per pound, and the demand is 
always equal to the supply. It is contrary to law to kill these ducks, 
•and the down has to be obtained in a peculiar manner. They line 
their nests with the down on the steep rocks and ice of the countries 
named, and the feathers are obtained from their nests. The nests 
can be robbed only twice a year, as it is said a pair of ducks can only 
produce enough down to line their nests three times a year. It is 
used for expensive quilts almost exclusively. 

Domestic white duck feathers would sell for as much as goose 
feathers, if it were not for the fact that they have an odor that it is 
impossible to entirely remove. Their filling capacity is equal to 
goose feathers. With chicken feathers the color makes but little 
difference, but the black ones are the least desirable. 

Special machinery is made for cleaning feathers, and the place 
where they are cleaned is called a "feather foundry." In this 
"foundry" the feathers are steamed, blown, quilled, mixed, sorted 
and made into pillows and beds ready for use. 

Turkeys are easily raised, and there is no excuse for being without 
them. Where there are plenty of grasshoppers turkeys will be able 
in summer to take care of themselves. The only trouble raising 
turkeys, as practiced on the majority of farms, is in getting the eggs 
hatched. A turkey hen is very fastidious and particular about her 
nest, and it is often very difficult to find just where she lays. If the 
nest is found and the eggs taken and set under a chicken hen the 
little poults hatched will have a pretty tough time of it. They will 
have to be given constant attention in order to grow them, whereas 
if the turkey hen has charge of a brood they are quite well cared for 
and protected, and other than the protection from the dew of early 
morn into which their imprudent mothers lead them, they will need 
no watching. 



47a PRACTICAL RECIPES 

If there are no turkeys on the farm, about the cheapest way to get 
a start is in the spring to buy three or four sittings of eggs from a 
reliable breeder, of the variety desired, Mammoth Bronze preferably. 
You will have to depend upon the chicken hen to incubate them, and 
upon yourself to raise them. The next year the sailing will be easy, 
and in two or three years you should have turkeys to sell, eat and 
even give away. 

"If I were to select an ideal place for raising turkeys," says a 
recent writer, "I should choose a rocky, hilly place, with plenty of 
running water and grass, bounded by unlimited range, a place free 
from coyotes, foxes, minks, weasels and everything else which would 
destroy my flock. I should let them do just as they pleased, except 
I should feed and pet them just enough to keep them gentle." 

Bring the young turkeys home at night and shut them in one of 
the lath pens; then if the morning is wet or cold you can keep them 
up awhile. A barrel makes a good coop for them, or by cutting off 
the long feathers of the wings and tail of the old one you can keep 
them in the pen without confining in a tight coop. 

When you turn them out, drive them the way you want them to 
run. Turkeys usually have a certain run that they go over every 
day if undisturbed. A little care in the start may save trouble later 
on. For instance, if your neighbor on the north has turkeys of the 
same color as yours, get yours trained, if possible, to running in the 
opposite direction. It is easy to mark them. Tie a cloth string 
around the wing next to the body, and let the loose ends hang down 
under the wing next to the body. This would not be noticed unless 
one knew it was there, and would settle the ownership when two or 
more claimed the same turkey. 

Lice are particularly fond of young turkeys, and they must be 
watched or they will kill off the flock before their presence is sus- 
pected. It is not a good plan to grease young turkeys. They are so 
sensitive to cold that they should be kept free from grease, which 
plasters their down close to the flesh and prevents it from keeping 
them warm. Use fresh Persian insect powder to dust over them and 
over the hen to kill lice. Do not feed for thirty hours after they 
come from the shell, and then give them eggs that have been boiled 
half an hour or more mixed with dry bread made of wheat or corn. 
Then for a day or so give them corn-bread in which eggs form an 



TURKEYS, DUCKS, GEESE AND PIGEONS 473 

ingredient, after which the eggs may be dropped, except for occa- 
sional variety in the diet of cottage cheese, boiled potatoes mixed 
with corn or wheat bread and seasoned with cayenne pepper until it 
is pretty hot, onion tops, lettuce, and meat boiled to shreds and mixed 
with potatoes and corn-meal. Make all mixed feeds very dry, so as 
to prevent a pasty condition, and on no account forget the grit. 
Anything white attracts a young turkey, so that a good grit is made 
by pounding up broken dishes until the pieces are the size of wheat 
grains, or even smaller. The birds pick this up when they would not 
look at gravel. 

Again keep your young turks in a warm place at night and in 
a sheltered place during the day, and as they grow older enlarge 
their liberties and feed wheat middlings, or ground oats scalded 
with boiling water. Do not overfeed, but supply them with plenty 
of fresh water. 

They must be fed often while young, but when they get feathered, 
once or twice a day will be sufficient if they have a good feeding 
range. If they get the gapes, treat them as you would the small 
chickens, and rub their heads with sweet oil if they have head lice. 
Turkeys raised with hens about the house need more food. They do 
not get as many grasshoppers and bugs and are more liable to gapes 
and lice. 

Ducks. — It is claimed by many raisers of poultry that ducks are not 
only the most profitable but the easiest to raise, because of their 
remarkable vigor as compared with turkeys and chickens. This 
remarkable vigor and comparative freedom from fatal diseases con- 
stitutes the chief explanation of the profit to the poulterer. Although 
they are voracious eaters it has been proven that they do not eat as 
much to gain a given number of pounds as either chickens or turkeys. 
They usually also bring a higher price in the market. Proper care, 
however, is required in the successful raising of ducks as of other 
fowls; even a gold mine has to be developed carefully. 

Water and Food. — The secret of successful duck rearing consists in 
providing the young ducklings with plenty of water to drink and a 
liberal supply of animal food in their diet. 

First as to water: Provide water fountains which are easily 
cleaned and into which the ducklings can thrust their heads, but not 
their bodies. Though an aquatic bird their first down is not dense 



474 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

enough to protect them from water, and water exercises a deadly 
influence on them, causing cramps. The fountains should be filled 
twice daily, and if clogged with dirt should be cleansed at every 
feeding time. 

Second as to the food: They should be fed at least three times 
daily, and all that they will eat at each feeding, with nothing left over 
to get sour. If too much is given at a feeding the surplus should be 
removed. Troughs should be provided to hold the food. These are 
easily made of a V-shape by nailing two narrow boards together and 
providing pieces at the ends for ends and supports. The food should 
be mixed daily and fed in a moist state. 

The following mixture will be found to answer the requirements 
of the young birds, and for that matter of the adults also: Take 
equal parts by measure of corn-meal and middlings and half to two- 
thirds the quantity of corn-meal or ground beef scraps; add to this a 
liberal quantity of fine grit and mix the whole thoroughly with cold 
water in warm weather. In cold weather warm or hot water can be 
used, but the mixture should be allowed to cool before feeding. It 
should never be fed hot. While for chickens the dough should be in 
a crumbly state, for ducks it should be quite wet. 

The ducklings will do better when confined than when allowed to 
roam. If large numbers are reared together there is some danger to 
be apprehended from crowding, which may cause suffocation of some 
of the young, and will certainly prevent some from perfect develop- 
ment. 

Some raisers of ducks, especially beginners, err by feeding whole 
grain or cracked corn; others fail to supply grit or animal food, and 
still others crowd the ducklings too much, or fail to provide any 
shade; more feed whole or cracked grain. Have all the food ground 
fine, at least until the birds are well grown. Even old ducks will do 
better on ground than on whole grain. 

If one observes the method above indicated and still fails of 
success he will do well to change his stock, for it will be fair to infer 
that it is not vigorous and healthy. It is possible that some of the 
losses in duck rearing are due to the use of unhealthy breeding stock, 
for in no other way does the loss seem explicable. 

In selecting birds for breeding a practical poultry man advocates 
especially the Pekin duck. He chooses those that weigh from six to 



TURKEYS, DUCKS, GEESE AND PIGEONS 4 75 

seven pounds, and mates with them medium-sized ducks, placing one 
drake in a pen with about six females. The mating commences about 
the first of November, previous to which time the breeding ducks are 
fed about a third clover and sometimes plain hay, and the rest bran 
and meal. The idea is to fill them up with something bulky and when 
they begin to lay they are given five per cent, of beef scraps. In a 
week or so this proportion is increased to ten or twelve per cent. 
Water is kept before them all the time, and at a season of the year 
when it is possible they have it for swimming. 

It is best that the ducks should not lay before some time in Feb- 
ruary. After starting to hatch with hens and machines you will 
probably find that you average more with hens than machines, but if 
you average in either case fifty per cent, you will be doing well, and 
even forty per cent, will be doing fairly well. From the forty per cent. 
you will naturally expect to raise eighty-five to ninety per cent, of 
ducklings, and that is all that you can expect, and seventy-five per 
cent, will often cover those raised by experts. 

We feed the old breeding ducks before we begin to force them 
for eggs. 

Geese. — The breeding of this noisy fowl has greatly decreased. 
Somehow or other there is an almost universal disapproval of the 
goose among farmers' wives, who usually manage that branch of the 
business, and they are not nearly so enthusiastic in outstripping their 
neighbors in the number of goslings. There are several reasons for 
the diminution of geese and their decreased breeding on the farms. 
First, they are a very unclean, filthy, noisy and meddlesome fowl, 
contaminating stock water if given access to it, scattering their 
feathers about the premises, depositing excrement wherever they 
most do congregate, and that is usually around the kitchen door, or 
at all events in the yard, and as a table fowl they are not very popu- 
lar, being excelled by the turkey, chicken and even the duck, 
c But the goose has a place on the farm. It has a value and may 
be grown with profit as many could testify. Feathers will bring from 
thirty to forty cents per pound, and geese on foot will bring from five 
to seven cents per pound, or from sixty cents to $i each. A fatted 
goose will range in weight from ten to fifteen pounds, twelve pounds 
being about the average. If geese can be raised about the barn or a 
considerable distance from the house, in a special pasture arranged 



47 6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

for them, having water, forage and a house for winter occupancy, we 
believe it will pay to raise them, though there is more money in 
chickens. 

The chicken has three distinct values, founded upon its eggs, flesh 
and feathers, while the goose possesses only the last two, feathers 
being perhaps its most profitable product. Geese, however, have no 
more business near the house and in the yard than have swine or cows. 
Squabs and Their Breeding. — One of the best ways to amuse, 
instruct and delight a boy on a farm is to give him an opportunity to 
breed pigeons in the right way. It does not require a very great 
amount of capital to start the business. An old out-building which 
is tight enough to keep the birds from getting out is good enough to 
start with. A building ten feet square will hold ten pairs of pigeons 
at a pinch if they are given a covered yard ten by twenty feet for 
outside exercise. 

It does not require any special skill to breed pigeons. The 
common pigeon is as good as any, and a dozen pairs can be bought 
for $2 or $3. They should be provided with plenty of water to drink 
and wash in, and should be fed cracked corn, wheat, oats and other 
grains. When a pair of pigeons mate it is for life, and no matter 
how many pairs may be in the same room they never change mates. 
Each pair should be provided with a double nest, each compartment 
about a foot square and two or three inches deep. Give them gravel 
and other grit, and keep the house whitewashed to keep them free 
from lice. If they are given tobacco stems from a cigar factory for 
nest material the lice will not bother them. 

When they begin to breed they will produce a pair of squabs every 
month for eight, nine or ten months in the year, the female laying two 
eggs and sitting regularly, while the male feeds the growing squabs. 
Squabs weigh about six pounds to the dozen and usually sell for 
fifty cents a pound in the city markets. Forty cents a pound is a low 
price and the demand is very large, for when one calls for quail on 
toast in a city restaurant he usually gets a squab instead of a quail. 
The squabs are killed just at the time they are ready to leave the 
nest, being larger and heavier at that time than at any other in their 
lives. A pair of pigeons well taken care of will produce about $2 
worth of squabs in a year, as sometimes they hatch but one of the 
two eggs laid at a sitting. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
HORSES 

Proper Horses for the Farm — Hints on Food, Feeding, and General Care — 
Water and Watering — Keep the Horse Warm — The Horse Blanket — Care 
of Hair and Hoofs — Abuse of the Currycomb — The Brood Mare and Colt — 
Period of Gestation— The Colt's First Year— The Fall Foal— Educating 
the Colt — Doctoring the Horse for Worms, Lumbago, Elephant Leg, 
Warts, Bots, Blind Staggers, Mange, Founder, Heaves, etc., etc. — How to 
Drive Away Flies — Mules and How to Fatten Them. 

The great question of all questions to-day for the American farmer 
is how to save'the fertility of his land. Without stock to consume 
the products of a farm there is a constant waste, and this means a 
cash loss. Keep the stock and save the farm from becoming barren. 

When you decide to begin stock raising decide what line you are 
going to follow and stick to it. The man who keeps sheep this year, 
cattle the next, and then changes to hogs or dairying will never make 
a success. Choose some course and stick to it through thick and 
thin and success is certain. 

It takes many things to make up the horse that brings the highest 
price, and this is the one truth that too many farmers do not under- 
stand fully. 

The breeding of fine horses, which was largely neglected for a 
number of years, has again received a wonderful impetus. Farmers 
have commenced to realize that the world of commerce cannot be 
moved without good horses, and the increasing domestic consump- 
tion and foreign demand must advance the prices of horses suitable 
for the markets. Many communities are commencing to take active 
interest in the subject, and in many instances local organizations are 
formed for the purpose of purchasing prime breeding animals. This 
is a movement in the right direction, as the day for scrub stock is 
past. 

Farm Horses. — The farmer who undertakes to carry on the opera- 



47 8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

tions of his farm even with a "plug" team is practicing false economy. 
The farm team is the most important part of the equipment of the 
farm, and if it is not equal to every emergency it is not one that can 
be used with the greatest profit. The farmer who has a poor team 
wastes a great deal of time, if he is humane, by giving the team its 
time and making its work as light as possible. If he is not a humane 
man he is guilty of cruelty to animals by compelling a weak team to 
do work that should be done by a good one. 

The farm team should be a heavy one. If the work in hand is 
heavy the team is equal to the occasion, and if it is light the team 
will do a big day's work with ease and will not eat as much feed as 
would a poor team kept thin by constant overworking. 

In feeding a horse it should be remembered that the stomach of 
the animal is small, and that it is fitted to consume such concentrated 
feeds as grain in larger quantities proportionate to its weight than 
almost any other animal. A good many farmers think to economize 
by feeding plentifully of hay and saving the grain. 

The wise farmer feeds liberally of oats and gives a little good hay. 
The team is not given more than a handful of hay at noon, and in 
the evening about ten pounds of hay is put in the manger for each 
1,000 pounds the horse weighs. This amount need not be strictly 
regulated, but the amount stated is approximately correct. Good 
grooming is strictly insisted on, and the horses are carefully groomed 
in the evening before they are left for the night. The stables are 
cleaned and swept morning and evening, and a thick bed of straw is 
laid for the horses every night. The harness is made to fit them, 
and they are taught to expect good treatment. As a result they are 
always ready for hard work, and light work does not worry them. 

All hard-worked horses in farm fields are greatly refreshed by 
an occasional rub with a coarse cloth or a wisp of fine dry hay. 
Repeated several times during a hot day this simple attention will do 
wonders for the toiling, sweating animal. 

Other Hints on Food and Feeding. — As has been stated, the first thing 
to be kept in mind is never to stuff a horse with hay alone from a 
mistaken idea of economy. He needs grain and other concentrated 
food as well as hay; otherwise his naturally small stomach will 
become distended and he himself will grow to be fat, awkward and 
inferior. 



HORSES 479 

The hungry horse will ''hog down" his feed in an injurious way. 
Don't let him do it. Give him a little, enough for a mouthful, and 
let him dispose of that before he gets the next mouthful. 

Watering the horse some minutes before feeding him will be a 
good practice, especially if he is a colicky animal. Heavy drinking 
after hearty eating is bad for a horse disposed to colic. 

In feeding the horse scatter the grain over a large surfaced feed- 
box. He will then take less into his mouth at once, and will, there- 
fore, chew it more thoroughly, salivate it more perfectly, and digest 
it more easily. 

Iron mangers for grain are preferable to others as they are easily 
kept sweet and clean. 

Overhead hay racks cause much trouble with the eyes of horses. 
It is better to place the horse's feed low, so that he will have to bend 
his head to reach it. This is good in several ways. It is the natural 
feeding posture of the horse. With his head bent down he will have 
a freer flow of saliva in his mouth to wet his food. In this position 
he runs no risk of getting seeds, or awns, or hulls, or dust in his 
eyes. 

Salt is one of the necessities of animal existence. To feed it to 
horses put a piece in the feed-box where they can get it at any time. 
This does not interfere with feeding the horses and at the same time 
a little of the salt gets on all the grain given them. 

Water and Watering. — A member of the Royal College of Veterinary 
Surgeons tells us in the Mark Lane Express of some things about 
water for horses that are of interest to horse owners everywhere. 
He says that it is absolutely necessary that the water given horses 
should be free from injurious substances. While it may be fit for 
their use in a condition that would be harmful to human beings, still 
it is much better to have it entirely pure than defiled in any way. 
Hard water is the source of kidney and bladder trouble in horses, 
and water that is charged with lime and magnesium salts should not 
be used for them. If given a choice horses exhibit a decided prefer- 
ence for soft water and will often choose water from a puddle rather 
than that from a spring or well furnishing hard water. The very 
best drink for them is clean, sweet rain water caught in a cistern and 
filtered as it runs in. Such a cistern should be kept carefully covered 
to exclude dust and other objectionable matter from entrance. 



4 8o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

The quantity of water given horses is often insufficient for the 
nutritive and depurative purposes which it serves. Even when eat- 
ing green feeds that are often as much as go per cent, water, horses 
need an additional amount, and when being fed on hay and grain 
containing only from 14 to 16 per cent, of water they need a great 
deal more. More horses have suffered from colic and indigestion 
from getting an insufficient quantity of water than from getting too 
much. A sufficient supply of pure water is necessary to the health of 
the horse and if frequently and regularly given the horse himself will 
be the best judge of the amount he needs. If water be withheld there 
is not only an imperfect elimination of waste and worn-out matter 
from the system, but the digestion of the feed is imperfect and 
impaction is a frequent result. 

Horses should be watered before being fed instead of after. It is 
necessary to use some care about allowing a horse to drink too much 
when heated, but the water should be given a little at a time and fre- 
quently, until the thirst is entirely quenched. 

Of all the many common faults in feeding horses, that of watering 
just after feeding grain is the worst. Water when given before eat- 
ing is not retained long in the stomach, passing almost at once to the 
larger intestine. If the horse is not watered until after being fed it 
is impossible to find room in the stomach for the feed and the amount 
of water the horse will drink to quench his thirst. As a consequence 
the water passes into the intestines and carries with it a portion of 
the undigested feed, where besides being lost to nutrition it becomes 
an irritant and forerunner of disease. 

But the best watering and feeding will be nullified by want of care 
otherwise. The horse that is well cared for in other ways will do 
with less nutriment than the horse that is exposed to the wet and cold 
and is left to his own devices. 

Keep the Horse Warm. — It is a good plan if your tie stalls are not 
quite warm enough, or are exposed to the in-rush of cold air when 
the outer doors are opened, to hang curtains at the back of the stalls 
from rods placed near the ceiling. These curtains can be made of 
old blankets, pieces of carpeting, or old meal sacks sewed together. 
They should be fastened to rings on the rods so they can be pushed 
back and forth as occasion demands. 

The blanket should be a part of the horse's outfit the year 






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HIXGBOXE.AXD X.W'li TI..\lf DISEASE 



From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse— United Slates Department of Agriculture 

RINGBONE AND NAVICULAR DISEASE. 

The above plate shows the ligaments and bones of the horse's leg and foot, which 
are the seats of these diseases, as well as the abnormal appearances. Ringbone is 
usually caused by injuries to the ankle from blows or overwork, bringing about a bony 
tumor. Navicular disease is caused by a strain of the knee, producing an inflamma- 
tion of the sheath, often complicated by caries of the navicular bone. 



HORSES 481 

round. In warm weather a light blanket thrown over a sweating 
horse will prevent him from being chilled injuriously. In cool 
weather the blanket should be thrown over the horse when he is 
compelled to stand outdoors for any length of time. In cold weather 
the blanket is an absolute necessity to the horse that is confined. 
Even the warmest barns are liable to be cold enough, during the zero 
snaps at least, to keep the horses in a shiver. The blanket will save 
food in the winter. 

Care of Hair and Hoofs. — A good index to the health of horses is the 
condition of their hair. The hair of an animal that is out of condi- 
tion becomes rough and lusterless and is a sure indication that some- 
thing is wrong. Keeping the hair and skin clean by regular and 
thorough grooming is a great help in maintaining good health. If 
the hair and skin of an animal are kept clean, a much better oppor- 
tunity is afforded the system to throw off effete matter that would 
otherwise remain in the system and prove more or less detrimental 
to health. Good grooming makes the hair bright, smooth and glossy, 
a good indication of a healthy state of the system. 

A handful of ground oil-cake, night and morning, mixed in the 
food, will make their skins healthy and improve their coats. 

A horseman writes as follows regarding the careless use of the 
currycomb: "I pride myself on the care I give my horses, and I say 
keep the currycomb off them if you desire a fine, glossy coat. The 
currycomb irritates the skin, creates more dandruff than it cleans out, 
splits and cuts the hair, and makes the coat rough and dull looking. 
The currycomb is of no use to me except to clean the brush. Brush 
your horse well, give him a good rubbing with a cloth and you will 
secure a nice, glossy coat. The scales, if left to loosen by natural 
processes, will flake off in due time, and only brushing is needed to 
remove them and to spread through the hair the natural oil secretion 
of the skin." 

Every farmer must have noticed that horses grown in dry coun- 
tries have small, upright feet, and those grown on wet, low lands, 
have flat, weak-heeled, ones, as a rule. Ponies grown for generations 
on steep hillsides and rocky heights develop a strong, high foot, with 
a small ground surface, but with almost flinty hardness. What con- 
nection has this with horse management on the farm? What is the 
hoof, anyway? 



482 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Hoofs of all animals are made of practically the same material 
as the skin of the horse, the horn of the cow and the nail of the 
man. The layers are closer packed in the hoof than in the skin, 
while the horn and nails are made of the same material but of less 
thickness than the hoof. If you soak the horns, nails and hoofs in 
strong soda water, the scales will separate, and, when placed under a 
microscope, furnish the proof of similarity. Hoof, whether alive or 
dead, will absorb about thirty per cent, of water, thus increasing both 
its weight and bulk. Under natural conditions the horse is provided 
with the required moisture, not in the shape of oil, of which it will 
absorb only seven per cent., but of water. If, now, you allow a horse 
to stand in the stable a considerable time, depending on the absorb- 
tion of its own urine for the water for the hoof, you must expect the 
feet to become small, possibly to crack open, and the result con- 
tracted heels, wasted frog, and what is known as navicular disease. 
Next, the digestive system becomes impaired, the hoofs become 
shelly and brittle, and you have a ruined horse. 

Moral: Keep your horses in the stable as little as possible, and 
keep them shod as short a time in the year as possible. Give them 
every opportunity to get their feet on the moist grass or ground, 
remembering the maxim, "no hoof, no horse." 

THE BROOD MARE AND COLT 

It is needless to tell the stock man that his final success in the 
raising of horses depends upon his wise care of the brood mare and 
colt. Safe general rules to follow are that heating and constipative 
foods should never be given to the brood mare, and that while she 
should have regular exercise it should never be carried to the point 
of fatigue. As to the colt, it is generally admitted that its first sum- 
mer and winter determine its future condition, and that no subse- 
quent care, however good, will compensate for poor treatment during 
the first year. 

Periods of Gestation. — A mare served by a thoroughbred horse will 
go longer with foal than one served by a cold-blooded horse; and a 
mare goes longer with a mule colt than with a horse colt, but pre- 
cisely what this difference amounts to is not yet sufficiently estab- 
lished. The average period of gestation in the mare is 240 days. 



HORSES 483 

Recorded periods of 384 cases mentioned by Fleming in his Vet- 
erinary Obstetrics, gives 307 days for the shortest and 394 days for 
the longest period — a mean of 346 days. In twenty-five cases noted 
at the stud at Pin, in France, the shortest time was 323 days and the 
longest 367, the mean being 343 days. 

Baumeister states that the periods of pure-bred Persian mares 
were 338 days for mare foals and 343 for horse foals; in pure-bred 
Arabs they were 337 and 339 days, females and male colts respec- 
tively. In Orloff mares the average period was 341^ days, and in 
half-bred English mares it was 339/4 days. 

The majority of foals are born from the 340th to the 350th day; 
living foals are rarely born from the 300th to the 310th day, but fre- 
quently from the 350th to the 365th day; after the latter period a live 
birth is rare. Two cases are known where the foals were carried 
several days longer than twelve months, and in each case there was a 
dispute as to the accuracy of the record by the owners, who wished to 
escape payment of the service fee, they disbelieving the possibility of 
so long a period. The longest period of the mare's gestation known 
is given by Dietrichs as 419 days. 

It has been generally the case that the periods of gestation are 
shortened by the more favorable physical conditions prevailing in 
high-bred studs, where the keeping and the vigor are of the highest 
character. 

The Colt's First Year. — During this period the feed should be such 
as will make bone and muscle, and it should be generous. Feed 
sparingly with corn, and use oats and bran, with good clover hay. Oil 
meal makes an excellent addition to the colt's ration. The stabling 
also must be good during the first winter, and a good-sized lot or 
field should be provided for exercise. During the first year, and all 
along up to maturity, the growth of the feet should have attention. 
Neglect of the hoofs often causes deformed feet and crooked limbs. 
The hoof should be properly trimmed so as to grow well-shaped feet 
and limbs. Before offering your horse for sale be sure to have him 
well shod, well groomed and fat. It is fully as important to fatten 
horses for market as any other stock. Fat horses always sell first 
and best, and command from 15 to 20 per cent, more than horses out 
of condition. 

The Fall FoaL — A thrifty colt must have plenty of milk. The mare 



484 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

can give a large quantity only when she has soinetning with which to 
make it. She can't be half starved, and give her foal enough milk. 
She can't do it on corn fodder alone. She must be fed well if she is 
to raise a good colt. 

The brood mare with a fall foal deserves especial attention. 
Short pastures, lack of grain and exposure are all hard on her and 
her foal. These things are among the reasons why fall colts never 
"do any good" for some people. See to it that the mare gets her full 
quota of the feed. Feed her in a lot by herself, where the other 
horses cannot molest her. Sweet hay, clover and timothy mixed, 
should be liberally fed, and let the mare loose on rye pasture. 

Educating the Colt. — When the education of the colt should begin 
is a question that has several phases. One man will contend that we 
might as well try to teach a baby the multiplication] table, as to teach 
a colt to pay attention to commands, but the cases are not the same. 
After a colt is three months old it is in full possession of its faculties, 
if such a word may be used in this connection, and is as teachable as 
a much older horse. The secret of success in training a colt, or, 
indeed, any other animal, is to try to teach only one thing at a time. 
Make the first lesson a thorough one and above all things do not 
make the colt afraid of you. Keep its confidence, and whatever the 
lesson is, keep at it until it is perfectly learned. The second lesson 
will be learned in a shorter time, and the third in still shorter. 
Before long the colt will begin to comprehend that you want to teach 
it some new trick. It will try to help you out to the best of its 
ability, and in the end once or twice showing will be all that is needed 
in any lesson. 

There is a great difference in the "teachability" of colts. One will 
pick up all sorts of tricks, while another will never be able to get 
beyond the duties of a cart horse; but a good cart horse is a valuable 
animal and sometimes the best-trained carriage horse cannot fill its 
place. While it requires one sort of education to make a good riding 
or driving horse, it requires another to make a cart horse, but as 
much pains should be taken with one as the other. 

The first lesson should be to train the colt to wear a halter, and it 
should always be secure when tied up so that it cannot get away, as 
this will settle a belief on its part that to be tied up is to stay until 
untied. A well-trained horse when tied is just as secure if tied with 



HORSES 485 

a piece of packing twine, as he would be if tied with a ship's cable, 
because he does not know he can get away at all. 

Scaring, beating or dragging a colt around hitched to a wagon or 
heavy load, with an old horse for a mate, is not training it at all. 

DOCTORING THE HORSE 

"Among the most pernicious ideas which possess the minds of 
many farmers," says J. H. Doble, the veteran horseman, "is the notion 
that almost anyone can doctor a horse; that some kind of medicine 
must be given to every horse upon the least symptom of disease, and 
even when the animal is well and thrifty that some drugs must be 
given now and then to keep him well. A most reprehensible folly is 
that of experimenting with drugs every time an animal shows some 
trifling ailment. 

"If an animal dies under this treatment, and they often do, the 
owner consoles himself with the reflection that he tried everything he 
could hear of, and did his best to save it. If by some happy circum- 
stance the horse overcomes both the disease and the bungling treat- 
ment, the owner pats himself on the back as a natural 'boss doctor,' 
and wouldn't give ten cents to boot between himself and the most 
skillful veterinary surgeon. 

"When shall we ever learn that disease is not a malignant entity, 
but a morbid action which may as a rule be avoided? With rest, 
quiet and proper surroundings, nature will correct her own slight dis- 
orders. Above all, when an animal is well, do not drug it." 

The above is good general advice, but for specific and well-defined 
disorders, medical attention is usually demanded, and simple reme- 
dies for doctoring the horses, without calling upon the veterinarian, 
are given below. 

For Worms. — When horses are troubled with worms, give them a 
tablespoonful of sulphur and the same quantity of hardwood ashes in 
their feed, night and morning for a week; then skip a week and 
repeat. Put a little bran in the feed and dampen it, while giving the 
powders; at other times let them eat it dry. 

Another remedy is to give a strong physic, and if that is not suffi- 
cient, give the following for three successive nights: Three drachms 
of calomel and one drachm of tartar emetic. Mix and divide into 
three powders. 



486 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Symptoms of worms are a rough, harsh coat; rubbing of the tail; 
hot breath, dry cough, and sometimes convulsions. 

Lumbago. — Horses are sometimes subject to lumbago, which is of 
a rheumatic nature. Blister over the region of the kidneys with the 
following: powdered cantharides, two drachms; petrolatum, two 
ounces. Clip hair off over the kidneys, about as large as a plate, on 
each side of the backbone; apply blister and rub for ten minutes; 
wash off in thirty-six hours, and grease well. Give the following 
internally; salicylate of soda, two ounces; wine of colchicum, four 
ounces; spirits of niter, two ounces. Give one-half ounce in feed 
three times a day. Let the horse have plenty of exercise. 

Warts are not contagious, but they are inclined to spread. They 
never cause death. The best remedy for them is to cut them out 
with a pair of sharp curved scissors, getting well down under them. 
Then treat them as simple wounds by washing them two or three 
times a day with a 3 per cent, solution of carbolic acid. 

Another simple remedy: Take about four leaves of strong cured 
tobacco, place them in a vessel, pour about one-half gallon of water 
over them, place on the fire, letting it boil down to a strong juice, 
and apply to the wart. Always pick the wart so as to make it bleed 
before the application that it may strike into the fungous growth. 

Elephantiasis, or Elephant Leg, is a chronic enlargement of the leg of 
the horse and it usually comes on from some injury or sprain, weaken- 
ing the tissues and inducing swelling every time the horse stands a 
few hours. The disease sometimes defies all treatment. 

Give the horse exercise every day to work out the swelling. On 
coming in, shower the leg with cold water, standing back some three 
or four feet so that the water will strike the leg with a little force. 
Continue this for five minutes, then do the limb up in a cold water 
bandage, middling tight. Let the bandage remain on four hours. 
After removing it, rub the leg well with the hands, and put on a dry 
bandage, middling tight, so as to give a little pressure. Leave this 
on until the horse goes out again. When it is removed, rub the leg 
well. Keep this up for two or three months. 

Give a condition powder internally, night and morning, for two 
weeks; skip two weeks, and repeat. Feed a fair quantity of oats, and 
very little hay. 

Here is the formula for the powder: Exiccated sulphate of iron, 



HORSES 487 

powdered, three ounces and a half; nux vomica, three ounces; 
ginger, one ounce; powdered charcoal, one ounce; powdered nitrate 
of potash, two ounces; mix, and divide into twenty-eight powders. 

Bots. — It is said that the worms or larvae of the bot fly cannot be 
entirely destroyed by any known remedy which can be given inter- 
nally to the horse. They can be quieted, however, and the animal be 
relieved by slippery-elm tea or palota juice. 

Blind Staggers. — If a horse shows signs of blind staggers, or 
megrims, give it doses of epsom salts, bran mashes and exercise. 

Glanders. — The treatment recommended for this distressing ail- 
ment is to keep the animal warm, and especially to bind a cloth about 
the throat. Internally give mild cathartics and assist the breaking of 
the swelling by poultices or ointments. 

Mange or Scabies. — Wash the affected parts with a warm solution 
of green soap (medicinal soft soap). Separate the animal and 
take special care in feeding and grooming. Another treatment: 
First wash with castile soap, then apply the following, mixed in 
two quarts of buttermilk: four ounces of sulphur, four ounces of 
white copperas and four ounces of white hellebore root, in the form 
of powder. 

Founder. — As this rheumatic affection is commonly caused by hard 
driving and drinking cold water when heated, the pain is usually most 
acute in the soft parts of the hoofs. One quart of linseed oil, inter- 
nally taken, with bathing of the legs with hot water, often alleviates 
the pain. A few hours after giving the linseed oil prepare a drench 
of spirits of turpentine (one ounce), oil of sassafras (one ounce), pow- 
dered alum (one ounce), and warm water (one pint), giving the drench 
daily. Only half rations should be allowed and the food should be 
of an easily digestible nature. 

Heaves, etc. — The exact cause of this malady is unknown; but in 
treating it particular attention should be given to the diet. Wild, 
moist prairie hay has been recommended, with a daily teaspoonful of 
lobelia mixed with the feed. 

For such troubles as bone spavin and ring bone, a hot iron or the 
surgeon's knife is often the only remedy. 

Finally it may be said that the horse is subject not only to diseases 
peculiarly his own, but virtually to all those which afflict mankind; so 
that to exhaust the subject here would be impossible. 



488 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

HOW TO DRIVE AWAY FLIES 

Owners of horses will be interested in the method successfully 
pursued by Doctor A. T. Peters, veterinarian at the Nebraska Expe- 
riment station, for driving away flies. He took an ordinary oil barrel 
and put into it a wooden spigot, using the barrel as a storage tank. 
Two and a half gallons of Zenoleum, with five gallons of cottonseed 
oil, were then placed in the barrel and enough water added to fill it. 
As required, the mixture thus formed was drawn from the barrel and 
sprayed upon the horses, or applied with a sponge or cloth as the 
occasion demanded. The control of the flies was not only quite per- 
fect, but it had one marked advantage not possessed by most other 
mixtures for the purpose, in that the solution was not greasy and 
sticky, but left the coat of the animal in fine condition. The mixture 
has the further advantage of being a very economical one, a barrel 
of it being compounded at very small cost. 

MULES AND HOW TO FATTEN THEM 

An Illinois mule dealer fattens his stock as follows: Put them into 
a shed or barn that can be closed up, except the windows and doors. 
Hang up at all of these, burlap fastened at the top so that it will blow 
in and out with the wind and when quiet it will keep the place dark. 
Flies will not stay there. If the mules are turned loose in the barn, 
put in a good oak trough. If the trough is of pine, put a hoop-iron 
band on the edge, as mules are great to gnaw. Have a small lot 
adjoining, in which you can turn them at night to roll. 

If they have collar sores, keep these well greased with axle grease. 
Flies do not like the smell, and will not light upon the sore if it is well 
greased. Have a half-barrel of water in one corner where the mules 
can go and drink at will. Put this up so high that they can only 
drink out of it, and not get any litter into it. Place a box of salt and 
ashes where the animals can at all times go and lick it. Now com- 
mence feeding them lightly, increasing until you give them all they 
will eat of green corn, clover hay, oats, ground or soaked corn, bran, 
and a little oatmeal and brown sugar. In sixty or ninety days they 
will be fat and fit for market, provided you have the right kind of 
mules to start with. 



CHAPTER XIX 
CATTLE 

Beef Cattle and Dehorning Them — The Dehorning of Calves and Old Cattle— 
The Dairy Cow's Food — The Best Milk Yielders — Don't Excite Your Milch 
Cow — To Dry Up a Cow — Training the Jersey Bull — Oats for Calving 
Cows — What, When and How to Feed the Calf — Teaching the Calf to 
Drink Milk — Cattle Diseases — Dry Scab, Clover Bloat and Eye Disease 
— Vaccination as a Preventive of Blackleg — Milk Fever, Garget and 
Scours — To Keep Flies Off the Dairy Herd. 

It is with the raising of cattle as with every other kind of industry. 
Determine upon your special line of work, and then study your 
subject and stick to it if you want to make a success. We do not 
mean by this that you should not indulge in mixed farming— that is, 
the raising of live stock with the cultivation of the land; for this com- 
bination is conceded to be the most profitable. Not only are many 
products of the farm used in the feeding of live stock which otherwise 
would go to waste, but without the enrichment of the land with either 
manure or commercial fertilizers the soil would soon become ex- 
hausted, and it is needless to say that the use of commercial fertil- 
izers alone would be very expensive. 

It is taken for granted that the farmer will raise live stock, but if 
he raises it he should determine upon the kind and the special class 
of that kind. If he chooses cattle he should devote his attention 
either to beef or to dairy stock. Each requires special food and 
care. 

Beef Cattle. — Corn is without doubt the most excellent of all grains 
for fattening purposes, and the farmer who is able to raise the most 
and the best corn can embark most profitably in the breeding of fine 
beef cattle. He should have both the corn and the pasturage. 

But the corn-fed cow is not the milk giver. The latter demands 

a mixed diet of corn-meal, corn-stalks, wheat bran and oats. 

489 



49 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Dehorn Your Beef Cattle. — One has but to travel through the sections 
of country from which beef cattle come to be impressed with the 
fact that dehorning has passed the experimental stage, and is largely 
practiced by those who are raising steers to be sold for others to 
feed. The advantages of the custom are so many and so great that 
the simple naming of them ought to convince the most skeptical that 
to dehorn is the humane and proper thing to do. 

Among the advantages of dehorning may be mentioned the 
saving of space at feeding bunk, hay-rack, shed, water-tank or 
wherever cattle congregate; less danger of injury in shipping, a more 
uniform appearance and, most important of all, the fact that, other 
things being equal, horns detract ten to fifteen cents per hundred 
pounds from the selling price of the cattle. This is especially true 
where they are intended for further shipment alive; in fact some of 
the eastern shippers have instructions not to buy horned cattle if 
they can possibly fill their orders with dehorned animals of the 
required weight and grade. This, of course, narrows the competi- 
tion, and instead of being readily picked up for eastern shipment 
or export, a bunch of horned steers may have to beg for a buyer for 
local slaughter at a much greater discount than that named compared 
with what they would have brought if dehorned. This, of course, 
does not always hold true, depending entirely upon the supply. With 
light receipts of cattle suitable for their purpose shippers and export- 
ers will not always pass a drove of cattle simply because they are 
horned, but when the market is flooded with this sort of cattle they 
develop a very discriminating taste, and "can't use" stock that they 
would perhaps have been glad to get the day before. 

It is to the interest of every man who raises or feeds cattle to 
dehorn them, and the younger it is done the better. 

There still remain persons who shrink from the thought of inflict- 
ing pain, and for that reason oppose dehorning. Such people should 
watch the cattle unloaded at the stockyards, note those with eyes 
gouged out, horns broken and bleeding, and bodies -bruised by horn- 
thrusts, and then go home and resolve to dehorn. 

Early Dehorning. — Calves should be operated on before they get old 
enough to have horns. It is like killing weeds — the best time is just 
before they appear. Caustic potash is the agent used. This comes 
in little sticks and in a convenient form for use. It should not be 



CATTLE 491 

touched, as it will burn the skin off the hands if they come in contact 
with it. The way to handle it is to wrap one end in paper and then 
it is perfectly safe to handle. 

About the time the calf is two weeks old is a good time to dehorn 
it. With a pair of scissors clip the hair away around the button from 
which the horn will grow. Then scrape the button with a knife until 
it looks red, but not until it bleeds. Moisten the end of the stick of 
caustic potash and rub the button and a ring around the base of it, 
taking care not to touch the skin beyond this. Give it a thorough 
rubbing and it will cauterize the surface and a scab will form. In a 
few days this will come off and the horn is killed. The potash is 
very cheap and easily applied, and to take the horn off at this time 
is a painless operation. 

Another dealer dehorns his calves with concentrated lye. A thick 
paste is made and applied with a swab, the hair being first clipped 
from around the embryo horn. The cost is nominal, and there is no 
perceptible loss in growth. 

Dehorning Old Cattle. — J. L. Taggart writes as follows in regard to 
the best method of dehorning: "I dehorn about fifty cattle a year, 
and in six years have lost but one. I consider the knife preferable to 
the saw, as it is more rapid, leaves a smoother wound and is less 
painful. The saw may be used on very large and old horns, or where 
the knife is difficult to place on account of inturned horns. The 
operation should be performed before the animal is two years old. 
The best time is in the fall while the stock are still on grass, and as 
soon after fly time as possible. The wound will heal better during 
mild weather, and there is less danger of it becoming filled with dirt 
than in the winter when the animals have to go to feed racks for 
feed. They also have the advantage of feeding at a distance from 
other cattle. 

"The best time of day is the forenoon, as this gives time to inspect 
the cattle once or twice to see if the bleeding has stopped. For mild 
hemorrhage flour is usually sufficient, or burnt alum. Should neither 
of these do, apply tincture of chloride of iron with a soft cloth or 
sponge. If this fails have some one hold his finger over the cut end 
of the blood vessel and call a veterinarian." 

Dehorning as a Saving of Space. — When it comes to putting up cows 
for winter the cow that has no horns will be found to take much less 



492 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

room than her neighbor who is tempted to, and generally does, hook 
and fight all those near her. In the stable, of course, each stall will 
accommodate its cow, horns or no horns. But we believe that horned 
cattle are often kept in stables on bright, pleasant wintry days, to 
keep them from hooking one another, when they would be much 
healthier if allowed to run in a small yard. Most barnyards are 
made much larger than would be necessary, if all the horns were 
removed. This wastes manure, as more surface is exposed to rains, 
and the droppings in a large yard are often so scattered that they are 
never gathered into heaps and carried where they are needed. 

The Dairy Cow's Food. — Experiments have shown that cows differ 
in two important matters; in the amount of food support required 
and in the application of the surplus of food consumed above the 
required food of support. The most profitable cow, from the dairy- 
man's point of view, uses all the surplus in milk production; all the 
food used to build up weight not needed comes out of what would be 
net profit in the case of the best type of dairy cow. 

H. B. Gurler, one of the best known dairymen of Illinois, in an 
address before an institute, recently said that he begins warming his 
water as soon as freezing weather sets in. For his dairy cattle he 
likes to have drinking water heated to a temperature of about 75 or 
80 degrees Fahrenheit. Not only does it prevent chilling his cows 
and a consequent decrease in the flow of milk, but it results in the 
consumption of a much smaller amount of feed. Then, too, the cows 
find warm water more palatable. Let them drink as much as they 
want. 

An experienced stock man pronounces the best ration for a dairy 
cow to be one-third wheat bran, one-third oats and one-third corn- 
meal. Give a pound of this mixture to each cow for every hundred 
pounds she weighs, and let her have hay and corn stalks for rough- 
age. This will keep up her milk supply all winter. If she is with calf, 
feed half the quantity of the mixture and she will come through the 
winter in good shape. 

The Best Milk Yielders. — "Many dairymen and others who milk 
cows for profit, believe that when a cow reaches the age of seven or 
eight her useful years are over, and that she should be replaced by 
one younger. But, other things being equal, this is a mistake," says 
L. J. Shenk of Elida, Ohio. "A cow that has been well cared for, 



CATTLE 493 

with generous rations and proper attention given her comfort through 
all seasons of the year, is better and will make a more profitable return 
at eight years old than at an earlier age; in other words, she is in her 
prime, will continue in this condition several years, and will not be 
considered an old cow until fourteen or fifteen years have passed. 

"Cows with first calves — at two and three years — are generally 
unprofitable in their milk yield, and only the really good cows 
between seven and eight years old are performing their years' duties 
in the dairy herd, and probably consume but a little more than the 
younger ones. The fact is worthy of the consideration of those who 
are dairying for profit." 

From a bulletin issued by the Kansas Experiment Station we 
glean these facts concerning the advantage of having calves come in 
the fall. Cows should be bred as soon as possible in order to have 
them come in at the best season for maintaining the milk flow. 

The greatest yield is obtained from cows that calve in the fall, if 
proper care, feed and shelter are provided during the winter. The 
prices of butter fat and butter are higher during the winter, and with 
cows fresh in the fall or early winter, this higher price comes during 
the period of greatest yield. 

A cow that calves in the early fall while on grass is in the best 
condition to make a high yield when fresh. Good feed and care 
through the winter will maintain a good yield, and when the cow is 
turned to pasture in the early spring a fresh flow will be started that 
will considerably increase the year's yield. A cow that calves in the 
spring has the best milk-producing feed at a time when she will do 
well with any good ration. As the flow begins to slacken, the quality 
of the feed grows poorer, and flies and heat help to cut it down still 
lower. In the fall, when the milk begins to drop rapidly on account 
of the time for calving, the cow goes from green pastures to dry 
feed, a change that tends to reduce the yield and dry up the flow 
entirely. Winter dairying avoids injury to flavor of butter from 
weeds in summer and fall pastures. Cows with fair surroundings 
can be made more comfortable in winter than in summer, and with 
fall calving will be dry when heat, flies and drouth are lowest. 
Winter dairying furnishes profitable employment for the farmer and 
his men at a season of the year when without it farm forces are either 
idle or work for low wages. 



494 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Fall and Winter Calves. — Another advantage of fall calving is that 
the calves can be raised at a season when there is time to give them 
that careful attention which is so great a factor in calf raising by 
hand, when losses from heat, flies, diarrhea, and sour milk can be 
avoided, and when at weaning time the calves can go from milk to 
green pasture without a check in growth. 

To make the chances of the calf pretty certain, the cow should 
be housed in the barn or shed where the wind cannot get through the 
cracks, and given a thick straw bedding. She should be watched, and 
it is often a very good plan when a young cow is calving, to person- 
ally attend her, or hire some experienced hand to stay with her until 
the calf is born and safe from harm from the weather. 

November and December calves have to be given extra care in 
order to get them through the winter in good shape, and it has been 
found a good plan to let them have at least half the milk produced by 
their mothers, while some dairymen and farmers let them have all of it, 
depending largely upon the amount given. A calf in good health 
can pretty easily make use of all the milk he can get from the cow, 
and with such liberal feed and proper treatment as to housing should 
grow rapidly and develop into a strong, vigorous animal that in the 
spring would demand and bring a good price as a fall feeder. 

Don't Excite Your Milch Cows. — Any excitement or disturbance of 
the animal system always affects the milch cow. In April, 1893, The 
Kansas Agricultural College purchased twelve head of cows from 
Lincoln County, which had to be forwarded by rail for over 100 miles. 
Records were kept from each individual milking, and it was found 
that with the ride, homesickness and change of feed it took nearly 
two weeks for these cows to return to their normal quantity or 
quality of milk. Observations since then have demonstrated that any 
unusual excitement or disturbance always influences the milk flow. 
A little knowledge of the structure of the udder will show why. 

The udder is composed of cavities, or milk cisterns, and milk 
ducts, surrounded by muscular connective and fatty tissues. At the 
end of these milk ducts, we find small cells which have the property 
of secreting the transforming nutrients from the blood into milk. 
These cells are most active at the time of milking, and in fact a large 
part of the milk is elaborated at this time. This necessitates a good 
supply of blood to the udder during the process of milking, for it is 



CATTLE 495 

impossible for these cells to manufacture milk without fresh supplies 
of nutrients from the blood. Any excitement that tends to contract 
the muscles of the udder or turn the blood to other portions of the 
body, will cause a decrease in the flow of blood. Beating the cow 
with a milk stool or speaking to her in harsh language, may cause 
the blood to flow, but not to the udder. Even feeding the cow while 
milking her is a bad practice, as it tends to divert the blood from the 
udder to the digestive tract. Every act of the milker and every sur- 
rounding of the cow should be such that the latter will give her whole 
attention to the secretion of milk at milking time. 

The Kicking Cow. — It sometimes requires a great deal of patience 
to milk a kicking cow, but if the person is determined he can control 
himself under almost any circumstances. Occasionally a cow will per- 
sist in kicking, in spite of all precautions. For such, a light rope is 
suggested, with a hook at one end and a short chain at the other. 
Put it around the cow just in front of the udder; draw quite tight 
and hook in the chain. She can scarcely lift her feet, and it causes 
her no pain unless she tries to kick. Sometimes the difficulty is caused 
by a change of surroundings — from one farm to another — or by a 
change of milkers. Never change milkers if it can be avoided. With 
some cows it makes little difference; others will not stand at all 
for a strange person. 

To Dry Up a Cow, reduce the feed, take away the grain, and when the 
milk yield drops, milk first once a day, then once in two days, and in 
one to two weeks the average cow will be dry, with her udder in good 
condition. With persistent milkers there is seldom difficulty, if 
alfalfa only is fed for a time. If a cow continues to give milk under 
this treatment, or if the udder is hard and feverish, the work of dry- 
ing up must stop and the ration be changed to a light milk ration, 
with loosening feeds, and the cow milked regularly. Forced drying 
up under these conditions injures the cow. If by oversight the drying 
process has been neglected until within three or four weeks of calv- 
ing, do not attempt it, as there is risk of injury to the health of the 
cow and her udder. After becoming dry the cow will need little 
attention before calving if she is on good pasture. 

Training <he Jersey Bull. — We hear very much of the uncertain 
temper of Jersey bulls. "No doubt this is the inevitable result of bad 
training — or want of training," says an exchange. "The bull has never 



496 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

been subjected to control. He does not acquire the confidence of his 
keeper and feeder, and from the first the natural disposition is never 
checked or turned in the way it should go. By feeding by hand from 
the first, and afterward tethering in pasture, when the first milk feed- 
ing has continued for two or three months — and indeed if the season 
admits of it when it is a month old — the calf becomes used to con- 
trol and submits without opposition to every wish of the keeper. 

"After grown to nearly full age, the training should be continued 
by giving him work to do, by which subjection is fully confirmed. 
Idleness is the parent of vice; and to keep the young animal in this 
subjective state by work of some kind, if only as an exercise, will 
confirm its disposition and prevent the resistance to control which is 
the basis of a savage and unruly habit afterward. Indeed, training — 
by which is meant the teaching and forming of the disposition by 
practice and kindness, with firmness always, and at times with 
discipline — should be the rule with every animal on the farm." 

Oats for Calving Cows. — "Oats fed whole will cure abortion in cows," 
declares A. X. Hyatt of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. "When I 
began feeding my new ration," he says, "my herd was in a deplorable 
condition. Some of them had but recently aborted, others come in 
heat that I supposed were with calf, and others with calf were plainly 
on the downward road. I had not fed oats long before a change for 
the better was plainly evident. My cows with calf began to throw off 
an astonishing amount of slime, which I believe contained abortion- 
producing germs; the cleansing kept right on until they regained 
their health and spirits, and the disease left as suddenly as it came, 
cows which aborted two years in succession, having borne strong 
calves every year since. But I keep on feeding a great many whole 
oats. 

"Experiments conducted in the School of Physiology, Paris, 
France, have shown that the oat kernel contains three medicinal 
qualities. One acts to soothe and tone up the brain and the nerves; 
the second yields phosphorus to strengthen nerve tissues; the third, 
residing in the husk, acts as a laxative and anti-congestive on the 
stomach, womb, liver and bowels. Is it a wonder that oats are germ 
destroyers?" 

Cleaning Off the Afterbirth. — "If a cow should fail to clean off the 
placenta or afterbirth after calving, boil a peck of oats, divide it, and 




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CATTLE 497 

give it in two feeds night and morning. If necessary repeat until the 
desired result is obtained, which will usually happen in less than a 
week." Thus writes L. O. Folio of Lake Lillian, Minnesota, and 
continues: "With us this simple remedy has never failed to give the 
desired result. By feeding a small quantity of oats to the cows for a 
couple of weeks before they are due to calve, they will seldom fail to 
clear off the afterbirth properly." 

The same testimony as to the good effects of oats in this regard 
are given by other experienced farmers, one of them using whole 
oats, after the cow has had a pail of thin, warm gruel and a few 
quarts of colostrum (the first milk secreted after delivery). 

What, When and How to Feed the Calf. — In dairy districts few calves 
are raised except on skim milk, and very satisfactory dairy stock can 
be made by this process if a few simple rules are intelligently fol- 
lowed. The young calf should be taken away from its mother not 
later than the third day, and for two weeks given from ten to fifteen 
pounds of full milk, not less than three times a day. At the end of 
two weeks some skim milk my be substituted for a portion of the full 
milk, making the change gradually until in three or four weeks skim 
milk only is fed. Full milk of the Jersey or Guernsey cow is often 
too rich for the calf, and part skim milk should be used from the very 
start. 

At the end of a month or six weeks the calf will do nicely on two 
feeds per day Skim milk contains all the elements of full milk ex- 
cept that of fat, and we can, in a measure, make up for this with 
cheaper substitutes. Probably the best simple substitute is flaxseed, 
which should be boiled until reduced to a jelly and a small quantity 
given at each feed, stirred in the milk. Oil meal is cheaper than flax- 
seed, more easily obtained and serves practically the same purpose. 

Feed each calf tied by itself with a halter, in comfortable quarters, 
with a rack in front of it for hay and a box for meal. For feed use 
whole or ground oats, bran, oil meal, or a mixture of these. By the 
third week have a mixture containing the bran feed at hand, and 
as soon at the calf is through with the milk, slip a little meal into its 
mouth. It soon learns the taste, and, following that instinct so 
strongly marked, takes kindly to the meal in the box and in a few 
days eats with the regularity of an old animal. Have the meal boxes 
movable and place the meal in them sparingly, emptying all that re- 



498 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

mains before each feeding time. Change the kind of combination of 
grain if the calf seems to tire of what is given. 

A prime requisite to succeed in calf feeding is regularity — let the 
calves be fed at the same time and in the same order each day. Next 
to regularity, regard the amount of milk fed. While fifteen to eigh- 
teen pounds of full milk is a ration, with skim milk from eighteen to 
twenty-four pounds may be fed, depending on the ability of the calf 
to assimilate its food. More skim milk calves are killed by over-feed- 
ing than under-feeding. Milk should be fed at blood temperature, 
say 98 to 100 degrees, F., and a thermometer should be used in ascer- 
taining the temperature. The feeding pail should be kept scrupulously 
clean by daily scalding, a precaution often neglected. 

In feeding heifer calves that are to be kept for cows, it is not a 
good plan to make them fat. If this is done the habit of keeping fat 
becomes fixed, and a fat dairy cow is never a good one. The cow 
that will get fat while giving milk does not put the feed she eats to 
the best use. 

Bull calves that are to be made into beef or sold for veal may be 
fed shelled corn in greater quantities than would be good for a heifer 
that is to be kept for a cow, for we want them to get fat and keep fat 
whether they are sold at two months or two years. 

Teaching the Calf io Drink Miik. — It is advisable to let a new-born calf 
suck for two or three days, until the first milk in the udder is drawn 
out and the teats are made pliable by the sucking of the calf. After 
that the calf may be taken away from the cow and taught to drink 
milk. This is not a very difficult operation, if properly performed. 
Do not take a pailful of milk and try to handle it and the calf at the 
same time. Pour a little milk in the pail, put a finger in the calf's 
mouth and get it to put its nose into the milk. A calf is liable to 
"bunt" the pail out of your hand unless you are watching for such a 
move, and when there is but little milk in it, it can be held in one 
hand. If the arm is held rather loosely, the bunting will not spill the 
milk, and the calf soon gets over the disposition to increase the 
quantity of milk by this operation. 

After the calf has begun to get the milk, slip the finger out of its 
mouth and let it drink if it will. If it will not drink, try again, and it 
is a very dumb calf that will not learn to drink in three lessons. It is 
useless to kick or otherwise abuse the calf. The punishment conveys 



CATTLE 499 

no lesson to the calf and only makes what is usually an unpleasant job 
worse. Nor is it a good plan to try and starve a calf into learning to 
drink. It may not get enough for the first two or three times when 
we are trying to teach it to drink, but most calves would starve to 
death before they would learn to drink without being taught how. It 
does not pay to allow a calf to get very hungry. What we want is 
growth every day and as much of it as possible. 

CATTLE DISEASES 

Cattle, like all other live stock, are subject to a variety of diseases 
caused by calving, overfeeding, exposure, parasites, etc. In a majority 
of cases the simple remedies for indigestion, colds, rheumatism, or for 
diseases of the skin, eyes, hair, etc., which are given to one class of 
live stock, may be applied to another. 

Dry Scab on cattle, appearing around their eyes and in blotches on 
their body, making them lose their hair, is thus treated: Take sul- 
phur, two parts and vaseline, four parts; make an ointment and apply 
every other day, until three applications have been made. This usu- 
ally stops the spreading of the scab, which is caused by a parasite. 

Clover Bloal is quite common with cattle. "Cold water poured on 
the back from horns to root of tail is said by one to cause the gas to 
pass off and relieve the animal," says M. E. D., in the Drover s Jour- 
nal. "It will perhaps take twenty-five bucketfuls. Another remedy 
which is said to never fail is to place a round piece of wood, made for 
the purpose, in the animal's mouth and secure it by means of strings 
or straps, as a bit is held in a horse's mouth. The ball should be one 
inch and a half in diameter. The rope or straps to form the head stall 
should be attached to each side. Theory: It causes the animal to 
chew continually; this starts the saliva, which, no doubt, causes the 
gas to escape." 

Ophthalmia, or Eye Disease in cattle, has spread widely throughout 
the country of late years. In some places the cattle simply have sore 
eyes, and in others the infection is more serious and a greater or 
less number go blind. The loss is not so much from the number that 
are blinded as from the unthriftiness occasioned, and the diminished 
milk flow in dairy cattle. 

This disease is infectious, and when started in a herd is likely to 
attack a large per cent, of them before running its course. It occa- 



5°° 



PRACTICAL RECIPES 



sionally affects sheep, but rarely horses. It has been attributed to a 
variety of causes, as the pollen from some plants, and to dust. The 
disease does usually occur at a season of the year when both pollena- 
tion and dust are at their most irritating stage, but the best author- 
ities believe that these are only secondary causes. The germs that 
have been found are pus producers. 

The symptoms are local and general. The body temperature is 
raised, the appetite interfered with, and rumination checked. In the 
mild cases these symptoms are not marked. When first affected, 
one or both eyes are held nearly closed, the lids swell, and tears pour 
over the face. A whitish film forms over the eyes, which may become 
dense. The cornea may bulge forward, owing to the pressure of the 
abscess from within. Yellow spots from the size of a pin head to 
that of a grain of corn form, and from the margin will radiate red- 
dish lines. These are abscesses, and when they heal, whitish scars 
will take their places. One eye may be attacked, and then the other. 
The course of the disease will last from three to six weeks, but it 
rarely happens that there is complete blindness in both eyes. 

The treatment is comparatively simple. Keep the badly affected 
cattle in the shade or in the barn if necessary, during the middle of 
the day, to prevent aggravation. Locally, apply equal parts of 
finely-powdered boracic acid and calomel, by means of a small insect 
powder blower. This can be done quickly with little restraint, and is 
preferable to an eye wash for the animal. 

Blackleg — Vaccination as a Preventive. — All acquainted with the deadly 
effects of blackleg know that most cases occur in the summer and 
fall. Until within comparatively a few years there was no known 
effective preventive of this deadly disease. There is yet no effective 
remedy known, rowelling and the use of setons having been pro- 
nounced worthless. 

Investigators have decided that the disease is infectious, but not 
contagious; that is, it is caused by germs that live in the ground, 
upon plants or in water, and that microbes find an entrance into the 
body through punctures caused by briers or stubble, or by means of 
the feed eaten or water drank by the animal, and not that the germs 
are conveyed from one animal to another by merely coming close 
together. 

If a blackleg carcass be skinned and the blood and juices allowed 



CATTLE 501 

to enter the soil, or if such a carcass be allowed to decompose without 
being buried, the germs form spores, or "go-to-seed," and in this form 
they may live in soil for many years, ready to begin life anew as soon 
as conditions are favorable. Thus the pasture may be a constant 
source of infection. To prevent this the carcass must be burned 
immediately, or buried at least six feet under the ground. 

The disease is not nearly as common as formerly, but there are 
still districts that are infected and in which loss from it is consider- 
able, and usually among young, well-kept cattle from four months to 
two years old, though other cattle are sometimes attacked. The 
germs are usually found upon low, rich land, and as the spore or seed 
of the germ is very hardy, it may be dried upon the grass made into 
hay from such land, and produce the trouble when fed in winter. 

The symptoms are sudden onset with high fever, difficult breath- 
ing, stiffness, lameness, collicky pains, loss of appetite and great 
depression. Swellings occur upon the body, about the thighs, chest, 
neck or shoulder, and these have a peculiar crackle when pressed 
upon by the finger. They are filled with gas. The course of disease 
is very rapid, only lasting from a few hours to a few days, usually not 
more than twenty-four hours. Very few victims recover, and treat- 
ment is useless in the majority of cases. 

Deadly as is the disease when once it has possession of an animal, 
there has been discovered a very effective preventive of its attack — 
vaccination, which has been practiced for several years. It has 
passed beyond the experimental stage and may be relied upon to 
greatly diminish the loss from blackleg. 

By vaccination is understood the injection into the system of a 
minute amount of attenuated or artificially weakened blackleg virus, 
for the purpose of producing a mild and clinically unrecognizable 
case of blackleg. This virus or vaccine may be obtained from a 
number of reliable firms, and is easily applied. 

Should any hesitate to use the vaccine for fear its injection would 
develop an acute case of blackleg, it may be well to state that statis- 
tics from this country, as well as from Europe, show that such cases 
amount to less than one in two thousand among the several million 
animals which have been vaccinated during the past fifteen years; 
that is, since vaccination for blackleg was first introduced. 

As to the protective value of vaccine, complete reports were 



So* PRACTICAL RECIPES 

gathered last year from five hundred stock men in Kansas, covering 
their experience with blackleg in general, and with vaccination in 
particular. A tabulation of these reports shows that the estimated 
loss from blackleg in unvaccinated herds amounts to ten and one- 
half per cent., while the actual loss of animals due to the postponing 
of vaccination until the disease had appeared in these five hundred 
herds amounted to 2,360 head, or three and one-half per cent, of the 
total number of cattle. This great loss could easily have been 
avoided, if the cattle owners in the infected districts had vaccinated 
their young stock previous to the beginning of the blackleg season. 
Such figures speak for themselves, and prove that on farms where 
cases of blackleg occasionally occur it is advisable to vaccinate. 

Milk Fever. — Obadiah Brown, member of the Rhode Island State 
Board of Agriculture and cattle appraiser of that state, has prepared 
a brief article on this subject, which has been issued by the Board. 
The article is really a prescription, and we take pleasure in repub- 
lishing it. Mr. Brown says: 

"My experience has been confined to my herd and to some of my 
neighbor's cows. My treatment is with laudanum and spirits of sweet 
nitre. When the cow is first taken, I give an ounce of laudanum and 
nitre in a pint of bloodwarm water sweetened with molasses. 

"Shake up together in a quart bottle, hold up the cow's head, slip 
the neck of the bottle in the side of her mouth, between the grinders 
and front teeth, and let the liquid run down her throat. If this does 
not relieve her, she will bloat slightly and appear uneasy. In three 
or four hours give one-half ounce more of laudanum and nitre; repeat 
this dose as often as she becomes uneasy, or in three or four hours. 
If this does not relieve the cow increase the quantity until the medi- 
cine masters the disease. 

"One of my cows had milk fever three years in succession. The 
ordinary dose did not relieve her. I gave two ounces of laudanum 
and two of nitre at one dose. It had the desired effect, and relieved 
her so that in a few hours she was on her feet eating hay. 

"I have never known a cow with physic to recover from milk 
fever; with the above treatment, I have never lost a cow." 

To cure milk fever by the Schmidt treatment, which is almost a 
specific, proceed as follows: 

Dissolve two and one-half drachms of potassium iodine in a quart 



CATTLE 503 

of water which has been boiled previously, and keep the solution as 
nearly as you can at the temperature of body blood. Then milk 
every drop of milk from the cow's udder, and clean with soap and 
water; when dried, disinfect the udder and teats with a solution of 
zenoleum, one teaspoonful to a pint of water. Then take a small 
glass funnel and attach to same a rubber hose about four or five feet 
long; affix to the end of this hose an ordinary milking tube, insert 
the milking tube into the teat, and slowly pour in your solution, 
dividing it equally between the four teats; when this is done apply 
massage to the entire udder for five or ten minutes every hour until 
the cow comes to her feet. Do not allow the calf to suck during the 
time the cow is being treated. If the cow is costive, remove the con- 
tents of the rectum by hand. In case of a weak heart, small doses of 
aromatic spirits of ammonia may be given with water eyery hour. 
Avoid large and bulky doses or your patient may suffocate from them. 
If your patient is not on her feet in eight or ten hours, the doses may 
be repeated, but this is rarely necessary. 

Garget, or Lumps in the Teats of Milch Cows. — Give one drachm of 
potassium iodide daily for eight or ten days, discontinue for about 
the same length of time, and repeat if necessary. Feed the cow on 
bran mashes and roots, with the usual amount of hay and corn-stalks 
for roughage, bathe the udder with hot water and hand-rub well. If 
this does not reduce the lumps, test for tuberculosis, which may be 
the causes of them, instead of garget 

Another remedy: Give the cow a tablespoonful of nitrate of pot- 
ash three times a day in a bran slop, until the milk clears up. If 
there is a hard lump in one or two quarters of the udder, bathe it 
with warm water for half an hour three times a day till the lump 
disappears. Keep her at pasture as usual. Milk her three or four 
times a day as long as the trouble lasts. This ailment shows when 
the milk turns to thick, watery matter about like melted butter. The 
first sign is a little stringy pus which is observed in the strainer. 

Scours in Calves. — "When scours begin in calves it is of little use to 
attempt to cure the disease until the cause of it is found and removed," 
says the American Cultivator. "Most frequently it is from indigestion 
caused by improper food, or food in an improper condition. We 
have known a severe case in a calf that was sucking its mother's 
milk, but we quickly found that she had been overfed with grain after 



504 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

having been kept without it during the period that she had been dry. 
We have seen it caused by calves having their milk too sour when 
fed to them, and by its having been given too cold. A chill from a 
cold draught or from lying in a wet bed may result in causing a 
severe attack in the calf, and sometimes when it was the cow that 
had suffered. 

"Remove the cause and then try to give a remedy. If caused by a 
cold, give some warm and stimulating food or drink; a little spirits, 
ginger tea, or something of that kind in the milk will help. Then 
give charcoal to correct any acidity in the stomach, the fine or pul- 
verized charcoal being the best form, with warm mashes, warm and 
dry beds; and even a warm blanket if the calves are sick enough to 
keep still. 

"It is desirable when possible to remove any animals having this 
trouble to a clean place, and to not only cleanse, but disinfect any 
place they have been in before putting them back again, or using it 
for others. Spraying or washing with a strong solution of carbolic 
acid, or of corrosivesublimate, is not only desirable as a deodorizer, 
but as a destroyer of disease germs. Spraying is the better way, as 
the spray can be made to penetrate into cracks and to reach corners 
where washing would not touch." 

To Keep Flies Off, the following mixture is recommended as an 
application for the dairy herd: Fish, seal or tanner's oil, one gal- 
lon; crude carbolic acid, four ounces, and coal oil, one pint, all well 
mixed and rubbed on all parts except the udder. Two applications 
per week can be easily given at milking time, and will render the 
cows quite repulsive to all kinds of flies, bots, etc., but not at all 
objectionable to attendants or milkers. It is expedient to attend to 
this matter, which will prove both humane and profitable. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE DAIRY 

Milking the Dairy Cow — Cleansing of the Pails — Straining the Milk — The 
Dairy House — Butter Making and Its Secrets — The Cellar — Keeping the 
Milk Cool — Don't Overwork Your Butter— Packing Butter for Winter 
Use — Uses of Skim Milk — Cheese Making — Home-made Cheese — Factory 
Cheese Making — Commercial Side of Dairying. 

The proper running of the dairy commences with the proper 
milking of the dairy cow, and the best advice that can be given is 
contained in these directions: Keep your person — especially your 
hands and arms — scrupulously clean; do likewise with your pails, and 
milk the cow as dry as possible. Before proceeding to milk examine 
the udders of the cow carefully, and if they show no signs of garget, or 
other disease, wash them thoroughly. Some recommend cold water, 
winter and summer, as its use braces the animal and repels heat. 
Wipe the udders dry before milking. This rule should receive 
special attention when faults, such as stringiness, have made their 
appearance in the milk. 

Treat the cow with patience and kindness. We have already seen 
that excitement of any kind on the part of the cow has a bad effect 
upon both the quantity and quality of the milk. 

Proper Cleansing of the Pails. — Scalding the milk-pails with water 
alone will not cleanse them, as hot water causes portions of the milk 
to curdle. First wash the vessels with lukewarm water, dissolving a 
teaspoonful of carbonate of soda (washing soda) in every quart of 
water used. Scrub well and rinse with clean, cold water, and then 
scald, using more carbonate of soda in the boiling water, then again 
rinsing with clean, cold water. 

How to Strain Milk Clean. — The ordinary fine wire strainer does not 
remove all the impurities from milk. In addition to straining 
through wire milk should be also strained through four thicknesses of 

5°5 



506 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

butter-cloth, which may be fastened to the wire strainer with a tin 
ring to slip over it. Even then the soluble impurities will pass 
through with the milk. 

The Dairy House should be separate from the other buildings in 
order to receive good ventilation and pure air. Where five or more 
cows are kept a good separator is necessary, not only as a matter of 
economy in time and labor but to secure the most cream out of the 
milk, and the most butter out of the cream, and to have both uniform 
in quality. 

There should be plenty of tin milk-vessels, so that with care in 
keeping clean there will be no risk of contaminating odors. There 
must be a proper regard to cleanliness in all of the management of 
the cans, milk and cream, as in straining no separator will take dis- 
solved filth out of the milk. There must be a good thermometer in 
order to see that the temperature is right at different stages of 
butter making, as uniformity in quality cannot be secured by guessing 
at the temperature. A good churn that is easily cleaned and kept 
clean is also important, while the best of cans, the best of feed and 
the best of utensils will not produce good butter without skill on the 
part of the makers. 

BUTTER MAKING AND ITS SECRETS 

The great secret of making butter so that it will have a sweet, 
nutty flavor, as well as possess good keeping qualities, is to churn 
the milk at the proper temperature — from sixty to sixty-two degrees 
— and, after the butter is made, to have ways and means of keeping it 
cool until ready for consumption or marketing. 

The first thing to have then is a thermometer, and in these days 
of cheap conveniences there is no excuse for any housekeeper or 
butter maker being without one. If you have not a supply of ice 
bring the temperature of the milk to sixty-two degrees by setting the 
churn in a vessel containing warm or cold water as needed, stirring 
during the operation to render the temperature uniform. As soon as 
sixty-two degrees is reached the churning should begin at once, and 
should occupy about thirty minutes. Never add water to milk until 
the butter has come, when a pint of cold water will make it gather 
quickly and nicely. The first essential in preserving well-made butter 



THE DAIRY 5«7 

is to keep it very cool — down to thirty-eight or forty degrees if pos- 
sible. Ice and a refrigerator are necessary, however, in order to get 
the temperature down as low as that mentioned. Often, however, 
the farmer, or his wife, must depend upon a cool cellar, or milk-house, 
whether he is making the butter for quick consumption or intends to 
pack it for fall and winter use. 

The Cellar. — This should be perfectly clean and free from every- 
thing which might in any way contaminate the air. All decaying 
boards and vegetables, no matter in what state of preservation, 
should be removed and the walls whitewashed or washed over with 
a solution of copperas and water. Thorough disinfecting of every 
portion of the cellar is a necessity. 

Provide racks for the milk-pans and have the latter of bright, new 
tin, which is the best material. Discard any which are old and rusty. 
Skim when just turning sour and keep the cream in the very coolest 
portion of the cellar. Churn every other day. 

To cool the cream sufficiently, set the vessel containing it in a tub 
of cold water in the cellar over night. Have a woolen blanket, wet 
in cold water, to lay over the top. This keeps out the warm air, sets 
up an evaporation and tends to keep the cream cold. The churn 
should be well cooled with water also. Churn the first thing in the 
morning. When the butter shows signs of coming add a handful of 
salt and several quarts of cold water, according to the amount of 
cream, to reduce temperature. Take out the butter, or draw off the 
butter-milk, as the case may be, and wash thoroughly in water as cold 
as can be obtained. Do not churn too long, but stop when the butter 
is in grains, before it is gathered into a lump. 

After washing until free from butter-milk salt according to taste. 
Work the salt in thoroughly and evenly, pressing with the ladle to 
exclude moisture, then set away to harden again before reworking 
very lightly, so as not to injure the grain. 

Advice to set milk in pans in the cellar is given on the assumption 
that the person advised has no portable creamery and is still using 
the common round pan. But to a person who has a creamery and is 
out of ice the advice is to use as cold water as can be had, changing 
it fully as often as it equalizes temperature with the milk. However, 
those farmers who are without ice and improved apparatus for cream 
raising should set milk in the cellar. 



5 o8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Other Ways of Keeping Milk Cool. — The only satisfactory way for 
the farmer with the average conveniences is, as stated, to use cans 
that can be set in water. When there is any quantity of milk, it 
would pay to build a milk-house over or beside the well. 

If the amount of milk handled does not warrant so much expense, 
a large box to cover the milk tank containing the cans will answer 
the purpose. All that is necessary to do is to shade the cans from 
the rays of the sun. The tank must be large enough to contain all 
the cans and a sufficient amount of water besides, to insure against 
its temperature being affected by putting in the warm milk. It 
should be deep enough to allow the water to reach well above the 
milk in the cans. By arranging pipes to carry off the surplus water 
from the tank into the watering troughs of the stock, all the water 
used can be pumped through the tank, thus changing it several times 
a day and keeping it cool. 

A long tank has some advantages over a round or square one. 
There is not so much danger of upset. With slats nailed across just 
far enough apart to let the can set between them, there will be no 
trouble in this line. By having several escapes at different heights, 
the quantity of water in the tank can be regulated by means of plugs, 
to close all but the one that allows the water to escape when it has 
reached the desired height. As each can is not likely to contain a 
like quantity of milk, it is a good idea to have several convenient 
weights handy to regulate the weights of the cans. 

Don't Overwork Your Butter. — It is possible to work butter too much. 
This repeatedly has been proved. Indeed, overworked butter is 
quite as poor as underworked butter. A gilt-edged buttermaker 
asserts that the delicate, nutty flavor of his butter is not added to his 
butter, but is simply not permitted to escape from it. His theory is 
that only butter in which the globules of fat are unbroken can have 
the nutty flavor. He says that his butter is so made that the fat 
globules are whole when the butter is finished. The breaking up of 
the globules takes place in the mouth of the consumer, and as they 
break up, the peculiar nutty flavor is perceived. It would follow from 
this theory that all butter worked too much would be wanting in 
flavor. One thing is certain: Butter overworked is butter that is not 
agreeable to the consumer. 

How to Pack Butter for Winter Use. — June is considered by many to 



THE DAIRY S o 9 

be the best month in which to pack butter for fall or winter use. 
One must be very particular, however, in the making and packing of 
it, in order to have good-keeping qualities. The cream will be best 
if it is skimmed while the milk is sweet, and then allowed to stand 
just long enough to become a little acid. One also must be sure that 
the cream is not tainted from wild onions or any noxious weeds; if 
there is an odor of onions it may be removed by placing a small lump 
of saltpeter about as large as a pea, in a cream can, while one is get- 
ting a churning. Wash the butter in cold water, then salt, using one 
and one-fourth ounces for each pound of butter. One must be sure 
that the jars are sweet and clean. If they are buried in the earth for 
a few days all impurities will escape. After the butter has been 
worked twice, pack solidly in a good, clean jar, free from cracks. 
Cover with a thin cloth and put over this one-fourth inch of salt. 
Tie over this a light brown paper or thick cloth, and keep in a cool, 
dry cellar. Butter may also be kept by making balls, tying up in 
cloth, and putting in a strong brine. 

Uses of Skim Milk. — Very few farmers value the skim milk at a fig- 
ure high enough to cover its real worth. It is rather looked upon as 
a by-product to be got rid of in some way and usually the handiest 
way is to feed it to hogs, and while this method of disposing of it 
returns its full value to the owner of the hogs, the credit is not often 
given to the milk. All the actual food value of the milk is left in the 
skim milk and butter-milk, the butter being simply a little fuel which 
is extracted and consumed to keep up the energy of humanity. 

Skim milk is counted by chemists to be worth something like 
twenty cents per hundred pounds. This is what the chemist finds 
when he analyzes the milk. There is something in the milk that 
escapes the delicate tests of the laboratory. It gives to any animal, 
whether it be hog, calf or man, more food to the hundred pounds 
than can be bought for twenty cents in any other form. The man 
who drinks skim milk is nourished by it as much as he would be if he 
ate meat, and during hot weather he can drink milk freely and not 
feel the need for meats, doing his work on this diet with much more 
comfort than if he ate meat. 

Fed to pigs, it seems to supply a need that gives them a capacity 
to make better use of their grain feed; they grow much more rapidly 
than they would if only fed all the grain they could eat. 



5 ,o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

There is nothing better for laying hens than skim milk or butter- 
milk, and when given all they will drink of this they lay well and 
require but little grain. 

CHEESE MAKING 

The making of cheese at the farmhouse is being largely crowded 
out by the work of the cheese factories. Being conducted by special- 
ists, on a large scale, the manufacture has also become more profitable 
and scientific. We give below descriptions of how the cheese is best 
made at home and in the factory. 

"To Produce Home-made Cheese is so easy I hope many will try to 
make a few for home use," writes Mrs. Alice Gwinn. "We only need 
to buy the hoops — a peck measure with the bottom removed makes 
one size, while a gallon pail makes another; a dairy thermometer 
which costs fifty cents, and twenty-five Charles Hanson rennet tab- 
lets, costing fifty cents, complete the preparation. 

"One tablet is enough for one hundred pounds of milk. To make 
cheese, dissolve one tablet in a cup of water at night. As soon as the 
milk is drawn it should be cooled to 70 degrees. In the morning 
take the morning's milk, mix well with the night's milk, and heat 
gradually to 85 degrees. Then lift the boiler off and stir in the dis- 
solved rennet tablet with a soft rolling motion until well mixed. 
Then cover for forty minutes and you will have a soft curd like clab- 
bered milk. Take a long knife (I use my bread knife) and cut the 
curd into small cubes, let stand five minutes, dip off some of the whey 
and put the curd back on the stove and slowly heat to go degrees, 
stirring gently all the time. 

"Now take from the stove, and have ready a clean board a little 
wider and longer than the diameter of the hoop you are going to 
use. This board should be supported on two strips laid across the 
wash-tub. Set the hoop on the board and put over it a yard of 
cheese-cloth, or a flour sack which has been ripped open will do, hav- 
ing first wrung it out in scalding whey. Then dip out some of your 
curd and put into the hoop, allowing the cheese-cloth to drop down 
as a lining for the hoop. Put in a layer of curd and sprinkle over it 
a little salt. Do not use too much salt or the cheese will be hard 
and dry. Continue putting in curd and salting it until the hoop is 
full or all the curd is in. Then fold the cheese-cloth smoothly over 



THE DAIRY 5'* 

the top and have a follower, or cover, made to fit nicely into the 
hoop. 

"Take this to your cider press and screw it down a little. In two 
hours tighten the screw a little; about noon tighten a little more, and 
at night repeat the operation. In the morning take from the press, 
turn over and press again. That evening take from the press, 
remove the cloth and rub with sweet butter. Wrap in a clean cloth 
and lay on a shelf in a cool place. Continue to rub with butter and 
turn each morning until you want to cut it. We like them at about 
fifteen days old. I sell a nine-pound cheese for from 75 cents to 
$1.00 each." ' 

Factory Cheese Making. — "The cutting and cooking of the curd is 
an important matter in the process of cheese making, if not the 
most important, for if the curd is cut right and cooked properly a 
good cheese will likely be the result," writes Herbert R. Gibson, 
instructor in cheese making in the Ohio Agricultural College. 

"By the use of the rennet test, the maker, knowing the condition 
of the milk, should cut the curd so that a good cook may be 
obtained when the curd is ready to dip. When the milk is overripe 
it is well to cut a little finer than when a slow-working curd is 
expected. With a glassy curd, when the fermentation is checked 
it is well to cut a little coarser, so that less moisture will be expelled 
from the curd. 

"The size of the cubes that may be cut depends to some extent 
on the season of the year. In the spring and summer, when the 
curd is easiest to cook, the cubes may be cut larger than in the fall, 
but as a general thing the curd should not be cut too coarse. In 
different localities, with different lots of milk, it will vary some. 
When the milk is set and is thick it should be cut as soon as it will 
break clean over the finger. 

"In cutting I use the horizontal curd knife first. To insert the 
knife, set the upper end of it near the handle on the top end of the 
vat. Now swing the point of the knife down into the curd, the 
edges of the blade cutting into it and taking a circular course until 
the knife has taken a vertical position parallel with the end of the 
vat. In putting the knife in, in this manner, the curd is not jammed 
and the knife is in position to be moved the length of the vat. Now, 
keeping the knife in the vat, we must turn it without breaking the 



5 , 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

curd, so that we can return the knife to the other end of the vat. 
Using the side of the knife next to the uncut curd as a center, we 
turn the knife around through a half circle and are ready to cut 
the curd through to the other end of the vat. When we have cut the 
entire vat of curd in this manner, the knife is taken out in the 
reverse order to which it went in. Now, laying the horizontal knife 
aside, we take the vertical knife and insert it in the same way that 
we did the horizontal knife. Next, draw the knife over the same 
course that the other knife went and we have the curd cut into 
slips the length of the vat, about one-fourth of an inch square. 
Now, cut crosswise of the vat, being careful not to jam the curd, 
and we have it cut into cubes. If the curd needs to be cut finer 
use the same knife and cut lengthwise and then crosswise of the vat 
again. A quick stroke is necessary to cut the curd now, as it has 
become firmer and finer and will slip between the blades of the 
knife easier. 

"Now that we have the curd cut, the next thing to do is to loosen 
it from the sides and bottom of the vat by the use of our hands. 
After this has been done, stir the curd up twice with the hands, 
then once around with the rake and the curd will be ready for the 
steam or a fire started under the vat, as the case may be, and the 
temperature should be raised to ioo or 102 degrees Fahrenheit, as 
may be needed to get the proper cook when the whey is drawn. 
Sometimes 98 degrees will be high enough if there is time to firm 
the curd before dipping. It is not well to run a vat too fast with 
normal working milk, for a cheese with too much moisture will likely 
result, and there will be a loss in butter fat, which means a small 
yield. As soon as we start the curd to cooking, we must keep it 
moving, so that it will not settle to the bottom of the vat and mat 
together again. Do not allow the curd to collect in the corners of 
the vat, and draw it out of the faucet just before turning the steam 
on and just after turning the steam off. As a curd is a poor 
conductor of heat, we should take from twenty-five to thirty minutes 
in raising the temperature of normal working milk to 100 degrees 
Fahrenheit. If it is heated too rapidly, it will cook the cubes of 
curd on the outside and hold the whey inside them and the result 
will be a mottled, whey-soaked cheese. In cooking an over-ripe 
curd the temperature should be raised faster and higher than in a 




Z ■* . 

D i 

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"fc 0* ~*±f 



THE DAIRY 513 

normal working curd or the acid will get the start of us and we will 
have to draw the whey before we have a good cook on the curd. 
We should not cook a curd at a higher temperature than is absolutely 
necessary, but get a cook on it if we have to heat to no degrees 
Fahrenheit. 

"When the acid comes too fast it is a good plan to draw the 
whey down so that it just covers the top of the curd. If this does 
not check it enough, add forty or fifty gallons of water a degree or 
two higher than the temperature of the curd. 

"To get an even cook on the curd it should be stirred from the 
time it is cut until it is cooked. Some factories use a steam stirring 
apparatus, but in most factories it is done with a common wooden 
hay rake. The curd is stirred in a rolling motion, making it boil 
up on the opposite side of the vat. The rake is held with the teeth 
up. Starting at one end of the vat, the rake is worked down the 
length of the vat, making the curd roll on the opposite side from the 
operator. Now stir from the opposite side of the vat back to the 
starting point, continuing round and round until the curd is well 
firmed, care being taken all the time not to jam the curd, or the fat 
will be lost in the whey. How are we to know when the curd is 
cooked? There should be one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch of 
acid on the curd when the whey is drawn. Here it will be seen that 
bur judgment comes into play, to know how fast to heat a curd in 
order to have it just firm enough when the acid comes. The curd 
must not be mushy and soft, and when a double handful is pressed 
together in the hands and one hand removed it should not remain 
in a mashed-up mass, but should fall apart readily. An overcooked 
curd will give a 'corky' cheese, while an undercooked one will give 
a salvy, weakbodied cheese that will stick to the trier when a plug 
is drawn." 

Commercial Side of Dairying. — We will assume that everything 
connected with the production of the raw material or milk has been 
conducted correctly, from the selection of the herd to the milking of 
the cows and the handling of the milk. Assuming the above we will 
turn to the commercial side. This side, in some instances, begins 
when the product is finished but not packed; in other instances it 
begins when the milk has been drawn and is to be disposed of as 
milk; and in still other instances it begins at the point where it is 



S i 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

determined what to do with the milk, whether to sell it as milk, 
raise the cream and sell it, make butter, cheese, or even perhaps ice 
cream. Then again, the commercial idea steps in and decides 
whether the butter and cheese are to be made at home, or the 
milk or cream for the one sent to a public creamery, or the milk 
sent to the cheese factory to be converted into the other. 

But if a farmer is a thorough dairyman, or determined to 
become one, he will do well to make butter at home. If he 
patronizes a public creamery he must pay four cents a pound for 
the making and marketing of his share of the butter, to say nothing 
about the hauling of the milk or cream or paying for having it done. 
All this will be saved if he makes his own butter. In addition, his 
by-products, skim milk and butter-milk, would be worth much more 
than that returned from the public creamery. 

If one makes butter at home and makes a good article, such as 
can be made in a properly fitted-up private dairy house or room, a 
market can be readily found for it if put up in attractive form or 
package. Many dairy farmers living near villages and cities pack 
butter in stone crocks holding four or five pounds each, taking back 
the empty crock when delivering a filled one. 

In many sections of the country, round boxes — holding usually 
five pounds — made from heavy paper and veneers of wood, and 
sometimes from wood pulp, are used to pack butter in and are not 
received back, being used but once. These packages are very 
desirable when one ships or delivers butter to a dealer who in turn 
supplies private customers with it. When such boxes are used the 
maker of the butter can have his name and the name of his farm — 
for it should have a name — printed on them, or on a label pasted on 
the side or cover of each box. 

Another and very attractive way to prepare butter for private 
customers, either direct or through dealers, is to print it. This 
means molding it in wooden molds engraved so as to print the 
top of the cakes; these are usually called prints and are generally 
made for one pound packages. A very popular form has four 
engravings, and creases the butter so as to give it the appearance of 
four squares or prints, each containing one-quarter of a pound. 
Another form of mold makes a thicker one-pound print with two 
engravings. In either case the division can be made complete with 



THE DAIRY 515 

a knife at the creases without marring the engravings. The 
engravings are tasty and in a choice variety of designs, including 
roses, rosebuds, grapes, sheaves of grain, and acorns. 

Butter prints should be wrapped in parchment paper, and if sent 
to market instead of being delivered direct to private customers 
they should be placed in a butter carrier, consisting of a hardwood 
box containing trays of the right depth so that the printed tops of 
the butter will not be defaced. Many enterprising dairymen have 
their cards printed on the parchment paper wrappers. 

If the dairy farmer is located near a village or city, it will pay in 
many instances to establish a milk route. In some cases cream 
can be sold to hotels, ice-cream makers, restaurants and to soda- 
fountain proprietors. If such openings already have been taken, 
doubtless the next best thing to be done, as a rule, will be to make 
strictly first-class butter and seek private customers for it in the 
same village or city. Such customers once secured are easily held, 
if the butter is kept up to a high standard of excellence. 

Ascertain the amount wanted by each customer and deliver on a 
certain day each week. The delivery of butter to private customers 
affords opportunities for selling other farm and garden products, 
including poultry, eggs and by-products of the dairy, cottage cheese, 
for instance, which some dairymen make from their skim milk. 



CHAPTER XXI 

HOGS 

Common Sense Treatment of Swine— Not a Filthy Animal — Cleanliness, 
Dryness, Sunshine, Pure Water, Healthful and Varied Food Necessary 
for Proper Raising — Portable Swine House — The Sow and Her Litter — 
Treatment Before and After Farrowing — Pig-eating Sows— Feed and 
Feeding of Swine— Green Feed — Warm Food in Winter— Curing Pork — 
Swine Diseases — Hog Cholera, Mange, Lice and Scours. 

The uncounted wastes of the farm can often be turned into pork 
and produce a neat sum of money without very much trouble. A 
couple ot pigs will grow and thrive on scraps that are ordinarily 
thrown away, and such scraps make the best of pork. Any one who 
has never made any account of the waste vegetables from the garden, 
the small potatoes, the cabbage and lettuce leaves, the pea pods and 
all such things that are usually cast into the backyard will be aston- 
ished to find how valuable they are when worked into pork by a 
hungry pig. Work the scraps and waste matter into pork. This 
keeps the place cleaner and saves a waste that is indefensible. 

But this cannot be done at haphazard. Careless methods will not 
pay even with the pig. He cannot do his work faithfully if you 
neglect yours. 

Perhaps some farmers would object to the assertion that in order 
to get the best results from the raising of swine they must be treated 
exactly as they care for their cattle, their horses or their children. 
Cleanliness, pure water and feed, sunshine and good ventilation, dry 
living and sleeping quarters and plenty of exercise are all essentials. 

It is a mistaken idea that the hog is naturally a filthy animal. 
The wild hog is always clean when we consider that mere mud is not 
filth. He seeks the mud to wallow in to provide against the attacks 
of insects, and at a time in the year when these do not bother him 
he is never seen with mud on him. He likes cleanly feed, although 

516 



HOGS 5' 7 

his tastes are different from those of the ox or horse. He eats 
grasses, roots and nuts from choice and roots in the soil for roots 
and grubs. 

The hog of civilization is compelled many times to be a most 
filthy brute. He must seek his feed in mud that is polluted by excre- 
tions and laden with germs, and if he is compelled to seek a wallow 
in which to escape insect pests he must go to mud as filthy as it can 
be made because he can find no other. 

The way to keep hogs healthy is to provide healthy surroundings. 
That veteran swine breeder, James Riley, of Thorntown, Indiana, 
keeps his hogs healthy by providing well ventilated dry pens in 
which the sunshine has free play. His sties are warm, so that but 
little bedding is required, and that is renewed very often. The warm 
stables also prevent the animals from piling up and sweating, only to 
catch cold when they come out to eat. The pens are disinfected 
twice a week. The feed is such that bone, muscle and flesh grow 
symmetrically, each in its proper proportion. When a hog dies from 
any disease it is taken out and burned and the path over which the 
carcass is taken is thoroughly disinfected. He believes precautions 
are better than remedies, and by using every precaution has but very 
little use for medicines of any kind. 

The proper way to build a swine house is to make it small enough 
so as to admit of moving it to fresh ground at frequent intervals. 
These houses may be built six feet square for a sow and pigs, and 
somewhat larger for more animals. When it comes to sheltering as 
many as twenty hogs the problem is beyond the average farmer, and 
more pains must be taken in providing for them. For ordinary farm 
use three or four nice, comfortable, portable houses in which a sow 
and her litter may find shelter will fill the bill nicely. For winter 
protection for feeders that are running after cattle it is very easy to 
build a perfectly comfortable and sanitary straw shelter, convenient 
to the feeding yard, in which the hogs can sleep or lie during stormy 
weather. The elaborate and costly house is not what is needed on 
the average farm. What is wanted is a shelter that will accommo- 
date the pigs, and still not be a source of infection from one year to 
another. The portable house is one way of solving the question. 

Swill, or milk mixed with grain, is too often regarded as drink, 
and no other is provided. The truth is that in addition to sloppy 



5 iS PRACTICAL RECIPES 

food the hog needs pure water, and should have access to it at all 
times. Do not make the mistake of thinking that water out of a mud 
hole will answer every purpose; it should be pure water, as clean as 
that given to dairy cows, or horses. Impure water contains the 
germs of worms and other internal parasites and also of disease, and 
should never be given to any kind of stock. 

One of the best ways to give a hog the exercise he needs, and at 
the same time allow him to do his part in providing himself with a 
variety of food, is to furnish him with a chance to root. Often, how- 
ever, the farmer shuts him up on a floor and feeds him and then 
wonders why he has rheumatism, why he has snuffles, why his back 
breaks down and his legs tumble sideways, why he has worms and 
-dyspepsia and lacks tone and vigor. And then when the pig is 
allowed on pasture a ring is put in his nose so that he cannot root as 
his nature dictates. 

Hogs are omnivorous. To keep in vigorous health they must 
have different kinds of foods. If a hog is shut up this variety must 
be furnished to him, earth included. If turned loose with his snout 
left in working order he will see to that part. Perhaps you do not 
like to have him root in the pasture. Generally he will not root, and 
when he occasionally does the grubs and cut-worms he takes are 
worth more in his stomach than in the sod. 

Corn is good for a hog, and so is water, but as a steady diet they 
are unsatisfactory. Any one can satisfy himself regarding this by 
trying such a diet himself. The hog is not so deserving as a human 
being, but to do well he must be treated in the same rational way, 
and if he does not do well there is little of pleasure or profit in having 
the hog on the farm. 

THE SOW AND HER LITTER 

In breeding a sow, no matter what she may be, always secure the 
services of a pure-bred boar. A grade boar may appear to be all 
right and be a good-looking animal, but there is not in him that pre- 
potency that makes him certain to produce progeny as good as he is. 
There is no objection to crossing two pure breeds of hogs, but this 
should never be followed up unless it is very carefully watched, as 
cross-bred animals are liable to show degeneracy in their progeny, 
while a first cross rarely does this. 



HOGS 519 

According to Coburn, young sows carry their pigs from 100 to 
106 days, while old sows carry theirs from 112 to 115 days. Spencer, 
writing of English pigs, says: "The variations in the time a sow 
will carry her pigs are very slight, and these are pretty -well regu- 
lated by the age and condition of the sow; thus old and young 
sows will most frequently bring forth a day or two before the expi- 
ration of the sixteenth week. Sows in fair condition will generally 
farrow on the 112th day while strong and vigorous sows will go a 
few days over time." 

If we are to have spring pigs the sows should be bred in 
January. The sow that is bred then will farrow in time to allow 
her pigs to be sold at six months of age the next November and 
these should weigh 200 pounds at that time. 

To have good pigs the feeding of them should be begun as 
soon or even before the sow is bred. The fat sow does not 
produce strong pigs as a rule, and the poor sow does not provide 
enough milk for them to make them grow as vigorously as they 
should. It is not the fat sow we want as a breeder. It is the 
one with strong bones and massive muscles, and to get such a one 
we must feed for bone and muscle rather than for fat. 

The breeding sow should be fed largely on bran and oats, with a 
proportion of corn. A good chop of half corn and oats by measure, 
and a thick slop of wheat middlings fed with attention to the 
appetite of the sow, will produce a vigorous growth, and the pigs 
from a sow so fed will come strong and vigorous, ready to begin 
to grow and keep it up, while there will be plenty of milk for them 
and the sow will not be in danger from milk fever, as she would be if 
made fat on corn during the period of gestation. 

Many a good sow is ruined by improper treatment just before 
and after farrowing. Here is what C. S. Inckley of Norfolk, Neb., 
says on this subject. Mr. Inckley is a very successful swine breeder 
and knows whereof he speaks: 

"First, I would like to have the sows in good strong condition, 
but not fed on corn exclusively — corn once a day and oats, bran 
and shorts for the bulk of the rations, so the pigs will be strong and 
vigorous — in fact, the less fattening food fed the sow for at least six 
or eight weeks before farrowing, the better. About a week before 
she farrows shut her up in a nice warm pen with a window or sun 



5 2o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

door, so she can get the direct rays of the sun. Don't feed her 
too heavy the last twelve hours, give her plenty of short bedding, 
and when she farrows be on hand, but unless absolutely necessary 
don't disturb her. I like to have several due at the same time. 
Mark the pigs from each sow so you know where they belong, and 
if some sows have very large litters and others small ones, even them 
up by placing some from the large litters with the small ones, and 
your chances for raising a large per cent are much more favorable. 

"After the sow farrows feed her very lightly. Now is the critical 
time, remember. For about three days the sow will be feverish and 
should have but little more than water or clean washings, and be 
sure there is nothing sour in either. If she shows signs of hunger 
give her a few potatoes, bran or a few oats, and then commence 
gradually to get her on feed, so that at ten days or two weeks she 
will be on full feed. By that time her litter will begin to take 
all the milk she gives, which they did not and could not do at the 
start, if on full feed. There has many a promising litter been eaten 
up, or died from scours or thumps from over-feeding the sow at 
the start. As soon as the pigs begin to eat let them have a side 
table to themselves. Let the sows in the pasture or lots, as exercise 
is very essential. If you only raise one litter a year, your pigs will be 
better to let the sows wean them. If not, feed them all the milk or 
shorts, or better still, both, that they will eat, and when you want to 
wean them commence feeding the sows lightly, and it will not be 
long before the pigs will forget they ever had a mother. One thing 
I wish to caution against — don't take them away with the sow on 
full feed, or one away at a time. If you do you are likely to have 
some spoiled teats and a feverish sow, and, not unlikely, an unthrifty 
one too, for some time. I consider a good pasture a profitable 
investment." 

Pig-eating Sows. — After a sow has once eaten a part or all of a 
litter of her pigs, the best thing to do with her is to fatten and sell 
her, for she will never forget the practice. The way to prevent losses 
of this kind is to prevent the conditions that lead up to it. If the 
sow is properly fed before farrowing and properly attended to after 
the pigs come, there is only a very remote chance that she will 
develop the cannibal side of her nature. Pig-eating comes from a 
feverish condition and a desire for nitrogenous feed. Keep the sow 



HOGS 521 

properly during the period of gestation and she will not feel this 
want. The corn-fed sow is the one that eats her pigs. Give her a 
ration composed of mixed feed, of which corn may be a considerable 
part, and nothing but water for twenty-four hours after farrowing, 
and after that begin with light feed, and she will not eat her pigs. 

Scotch swine-growers give pig-eating sows flower of sulphur 
to break them of their cannibal habit. A few spoonfuls of the 
sulphur are fed to the sows in swill several days before and after 
farrowing. It is claimed to be a sure corrective of the pig-eating 
habit. 

FEED AND FEEDING 

The days when it was thought that all that was necessary to raise 
hogs was to have handy an old, well-filled swill barrel, however filthy, 
are happily passed. Dish water and general kitchen slops are no 
longer considered sufficient for the brooding sow and the growing pig. 

It is a gross mistake to feed hogs dish water and general kitchen 
slops. The dish water is strongly impregnated with the alkali in the 
soap or powders used in washing dishes and kitchen vessels, and for 
that reason alone it is unfit for any animal to eat. The alkali 
prevents fermentation and digestion in the hog's stomach, just as 
it does in the human stomach, and for that reason it is sure to 
derange the digestive organs and produce disease in the swine. Feed 
no dish water to your swine. 

It is an equally gross mistake to feed swine with swill that is so 
sour or so far fermented as to be really putrid. When swill, made 
up of kitchen refuse, other than dish water, begins to ferment, it 
may be fed with safety, but in a few hours the fermentation action 
begins to take on the putrefactive stage, and then the materials in 
the swill rapidly lose their possible food value and pass into a 
putrid form, in which they become poisonous. The hog can thrive 
on putrid foods no more than the human being. 

Pure Water and Mixed Rations. — Hogs frequently surfer from lack 
of water, because farmers do not remember that whatever comes 
in liquid form is not a substitute for the clear and fresh water which 
all animals need. Most of the water that pigs get is as bad a 
substitute for the pure article as skim milk. It is largely the 
water used for the washing of dishes or the freshening of salted 



5« PRACTICAL RECIPES 

pork. In this way the hogs get more salt into their stomachs than 
they require, and this also makes the hogs feverish and injures the 
quality of the pork. This sometimes makes the western pork, 
which is fattened in large droves and gets little salt, better than 
the pork made by the farmer who keeps but two or three pigs, and 
feeds them from the swill barrel filled with a mixture of dish water, 
skim milk and salt water. The water in which salt pork and beef 
are freshened is highly nutritious, as a good deal of their strength 
goes out with the salt when they are freshened for cooking. But 
the great majority of hogs would be healthier if they had enough 
fresh water, fruits and vegetables to offset the excess of salt that 
most of their drink contains. 

As has been stated, experience has proven that both pure water 
and mixed rations are most profitable for the pig and the farmer. 
The thinking farmer provides a pasture of clover or blue grass for 
his pigs, and gets them up to ioo pounds or above with grass, wheat 
bran, skim milk and such nitrogenous feeds as make lean meat and 
bone. (Wood ashes make a very good bone food.) Then he feeds 
corn and oats, or bran, and toward the last feeds all the corn the 
animals will eat with a good appetite, and goes into the market 
with a finished product that he may be proud of, which has not cost 
him any more than a full corn-fed hog would have cost. When all 
farmers follow this course, then will American pork have come into 
its own and the price will rise to its true value. 

Although corn is the most valuable food for hogs that are to be 
marketed, green feed is now considered as necessary for swine as for 
sheep or cattle. Every farmer, therefore, who owns hogs should 
plan to have succulent feed for them nearly every day in the year. 
Root crops should be planted in the spring for winter use, and rape 
should be sown for summer pasture unless there is a clover field 
available. Hogs like sorghum or sweet corn also. The healthy 
herd of hogs is the one that is kept in good condition by having a 
full supply of green feed all the time. 

Sugar beets have been found one of the best things that can be 
fed to hogs. They are rich in sugar, which is changed into fat, and 
besides this they contain mineral matters of use in building up the 
frame of the animal. In Nebraska it has been found that beet-fed 
pigs need but little corn to make a thrifty growth, and that herds 



HOGS 533 

fed a regular ration of beets grow to larger size at the same age 
than those fed almost wholly on corn, while they are less liable to 
the attacks of disease. 

Wallace's Farmer recommends sowing rape for hog pasture. For 
this use it should be sown as early as possible. If rape is sown 
the first week in May it will be ready for use by the last week in 
June. In preparing the ground remember that too much care cannot 
be taken to put it in perfect condition, that it comes into use quicker 
than any other crop and furnishes more feed to the acre. 

Warm Food in Winter. — Did you ever notice the avidity with which 
a pig will eat warm slops or grain mash, and the indifference he 
sometimes manifests toward cold food? It is apparent that the 
pig likes warm food, and the difference on a cold day between 
feeding a pig with warm food and cold food is very great. In the 
first place the pig is not nearly so well protected from the cold as 
cattle and sheep; and in the second place soft food is more adapted 
to its needs. When it is to grow at its best, much of the food fed 
to it must be given in the form of swill. If such food is fed in an 
icy condition the pig shivers after taking it. To take food thus it is 
a very different matter from taking it as warm, at least, as blood 
heat. When thus fed the pig can go and lie down in comfort. 

It may cost fuel and labor to thus heat food for pigs in winter, 
but it ought to be done. Even breed sows which are wintered on 
grain and roots will thrive all the better if they can have the water 
warmed which they drink while the weather is cold. Attention to 
these matters is vital. It makes the difference frequently between 
profit and no profit. Steaming food is one of the best ways 
of preparing it for pigs when the facilities are at hand for 
preparing it thus. 

CURING PORK 

"As every thrifty farmer kills and cures his own pork, any way 
of lessening the labor of smoking it doubtless will be appreciated," 
writes L. A. Stockwell of Cloverdale, Ind. "I used to spend 
two weeks trying to smoke my meat by hanging it high in the 
smokehouse. To keep a smokehouse full of strong smoke was a 
task that took pretty close attention; yet most of the meat around 
here is smoked just that way. Riding along the other day I saw 



S 2 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

smoke issuing from large cracks in several smokehouses, and that 
is the trouble. It is difficult to keep them tight enough to hold the 
smoke. I smoke my meat now in two days. I have a large dry 
goods box, and hang the joints all around on the inside by means 
of a hook. Then put an iron soap kettle in, containing a bucket of 
ashes, and on these drop a few coals. I put on five or six cobs, and 
cover with an old carpet doubled three or four times. When 
smoked I pack into a tight sugar barrel, and cover with one 
thickness of carpet, over which I crowd down a close-fitting barrel 
cover such as are used over sugar barrels in stores." 

SWINE DISEASES 

We have already seen that the most profitable way to raise 
swine is to treat them according to common sense rules of health, 
and that their well-being does not depend in any measure upon 
the promiscuous feeding of drugs. Still when ailments and actual 
diseases do come, it is best to know how to treat them promptly on 
the farm. 

Hog Cholera. — This is the most common of the diseases which 
affect swine and those who have studied its causes always say that it 
gets its start in filthy pens and yards, and from drinking impure 
water. One of the best preventives is "Germol", which is used as a 
disinfectant. Calomel is also used as a preventive. It acts as a 
physic to thoroughly purge the bowels, and ten grains are used for 
a dose. Usually one dose is sufficient. 

A daily supply of soft coal, or coal slack, is another means of 
warding off the disease. The hogs are given free access to it and 
will not eat more than is good to cleanse their stomach and bowels. 

If the animal is actually attacked separate him from the others. 
Feed the hog oatmeal and bran in a slop cooked with pumpkins or 
potatoes. Give fifteen drops of tincture of iron, ten drops of 
tincture of nux vomica, and half an ounce of sulphate of soda 
night and morning in the slop for ten or fifteen days. If the hog 
will not eat the slop with this in it, mix it with four ounces of water 
and give it as a drench. 

The following is given by the United States Agricultural 
Department both as a preventive and a cure: Animals under 
treatment should be kept dry and warm in clean pens, and the 



HOGS 525 

yards and pens should occasionally be disinfected with a 5 per cent, 
solution of crude carbolic acid. The remedy is good, moderate in 
price, obtainable at any drug store, and easily mixed at home. It 
will do much toward keeping hogs well, and while not infallible, if 
given to ailing hogs early in the disease, will generally save them. 

The remedy: Sodium sulphate, black antimony, sulphur and 
wood charcoal, one pound each, and two pounds each of sodium 
hyposulphite, sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride. Pulverize 
thoroughly and mix well. The dose is a heaping tablespoonful 
to each 200 pounds of hog weight, given once a day in a mixture of 
ground oats and corn moistened with hot water. 

Mange and Lice in Swine are usually the result of allowing the pigs 
to sleep on manure heaps or in old, partially rotten straw piles. 
Mange is caused by a very small insect that burrows itself under the 
skin and makes a sore over which a scab forms. To cure, one of the 
best plans is to wash the animal thoroughly with castile soap and 
warm water, and then rub with a salve of lard and coal oil in equal 
parts. This may need repeating in a week or ten days in severe cases. 
The bedding should be changed, and clean, dry straw be given. 

The following formula answers well for killing lice on swine, and 
it is not costly: Take one-half pound of soft soap, or ordinary soap 
in case soft soap cannot be obtained. Put this in one gallon of 
water and boil it gently until the soap is dissolved. Remove from 
the stove, and add two gallons of coal oil. Then heat until the 
soapy water and oil are thoroughly diffused, stirring the mixture 
gently in the meantime while it is heating. Next dilute the same 
by adding to it eight or ten times its bulk of water. Apply the 
mixture with a cloth or brush. If applied with a cloth the animal 
should be brushed at once thereafter, to distribute the application 
all through the hair. In about ten days make a second application, 
as then the nits will be hatched. Stray lice may also have come 
from the bedding. The work will be more thorough if the bedding 
is well cleaned away before making the application or immediately 
thereafter, and the floors of the stalls lightly sprayed with the 
solution. But ordinarily two applications of the mixture will suffice 
when the application is carefully and thoroughly made. 

Scours is a trouble dreaded by all careful pig growers, and not 
without reason, for it means a stop of growth in the pigs. It is the 



526 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

result of bad management on the part of the feeder. "Our 
experience has covered efforts in several directions to prevent it," 
says John N. Jamison. "We have always fed high, and as we now 
know we often fed food too rich and fattening. In our early 
experience we fed heavily on corn, always ear corn, and often meal 
as part mixture in slop. The scours were as sure to come when 
the pigs were about three weeks old as the sun was to rise. Then 
we checked the trouble by cutting down feed, and, instead of slop, 
fed dry feed, and as an additional remedy, scorched flour. Then 
the trouble went through the herd, always causing a serious check 
in growth and thrift, and sometimes loss by death by becoming 
chronic. This management was not at all satisfactory, and to avoid 
the trouble we began limiting the ration of the sows when the pigs 
were about three weeks old. This did better, but was not satisfactory, 
because they were not making the greatest growth possible. 

"We then found that by feeding only middlings and bran as a 
thick slop, all the sows wanted, the pigs would escape the trouble. 
But a farmer dislikes to eliminate corn entirely from the ration when 
the cribs are full to overflow. Consequently we looked a little 
farther and tried another plan. We fed a part ration of corn, say 
one-third to one-half. And if the scours made its appearance we fed 
the sow a little copperas in her slop, a teaspoonful dissolved in water 
and mixed in the slop at each feed for three or four feeds. This 
has always checked the trouble and prevents it running through the 
litter and the herd." 

THE DIFFERENT BREEDS 

The Poland-China breed originated in the Miama Valley, in 
Butler and Warren counties, between 1838 and 1840, in the crossing 
of various families there known as big China, Byfield, Bedford, and 
Irish Grazier, the offspring being a somewhat coarse black-and- 
white-spotted swine called by various names, for which a national 
convention of swine breeders, in 1872, selected that of Poland-China. 
These were crossed with imported Berkshires to give refinement and 
propensity to early fattening, and incidentally they acquired much of 
the Berkshires' conformation, black color, and white markings. 
The progress made at that season and at that time was in a measure 
due to the nearness to Cincinnati, which in those days was the greatest 



HOGS 5*7 

pork-packing point in the world. This popular breed, pre-eminently 
an American product, probably now numbers as many individuals as 
all the other breeds combined in the United States. 

The Berkshire in its improved form originated, as did the Essex, 
in England — Italian and Spanish swine being crossed with the coarser 
native stock — between 1780 and 1800. Although first exported to 
North America about 1830, it did not obtain general or permanent 
favor until after 1870. The breed is widely disseminated in 
America, and justly a favorite, both to breed pure and cross with 
other breeds. 

Chester Whites are the result of mating some large white stock 
from Bedfordshire, England, with the white hogs common in 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, about 1818 to 1830; the descendants 
being swine that were gradually improved by selection, and have 
maintained their popularity in North America better than any other 
of their color. In later years hogs of a dark color are most largely 
reared, because of a belief that they are hardier and less susceptible 
to affections of the skin incident to sudden changes of temperature 
and the muddy quarters, severe winds and burning suns to which 
they are too often continuously subjected. 

The Duroc-Jerseys are a breed of large, sandy hogs that are 
the result of a blending in recent years of families that first attracted 
attention in New Jersey, where they were known as "Jersey Reds," 
with the possibly somewhat different type common in Saratoga 
county, New York, and locally known as "Durocs." The best of 
them are very easy feeders, full of quality, and in many instances 
carry extreme weight firmly on bones astonishingly fine. 

The Essex are from England, and entirely black. Few of them 
are raised in the United States, and they are but a very limited 
factor in the production of this country. 

The Yorkshires are entirely British, and in England three 
families of them are bred, known as the "Large White," "Middle 
White" and "Small White." The Small Whites so nearly resemble 
what Americans have known as Suffolks that an expert is unable to 
tell one from the other. The large Yorkshires or Whites, and the 
Tamworths are the breeds so much doted on by the English and 
Canadians as "bacon" hogs, yielding possibly not more lean meat, 
but less fat than is common to the swine of the corn-growing regions. 



S 2S PRACTICAL RECIPES 

They cut no appreciable figure whatever in the pork production of the 
United States. 

Tamworths are a slab-sided, long-legged, lardless, unlovely, red, 
rusty or sandy, half-civilized sort, from England. Like the York- 
shires their admirers in the United States are at present by no means 
numerous. 

The Victorias, a modern composite sort, were originated in 
Lake county, Indiana, twenty odd years ago, are white, of medium 
size, and comparatively unhonored and unsung. 

Poland-Chinas, Chester Whites, Duroc-Jerseys, Berkshires, Large 
Yorkshires or Whites, and Tamworths are properly classed as large 
breeds; the Essex and Victorias and Middle Yorkshires as medium- 
sized breeds, and the Yorkshires and Suffolks as small breeds. As 
a matter of fact, few Americans are engaged in rearing any of the 
small breeds, preferring those producing animals suitable for 
slaughter at an early age, yet capable of further growth to any size 
wished. 




4) a) 

EH -3. 




, w <y -. 



CHAPTER XXII 
SHEEP AND GOATS 

Proper Country, the First Consideration— Sheep as Weed Exterminators and 
Fertilizers — Feed — Time for Mating — Controlling Sex — Ewe and Lamb, 
and Best Care of Them — Mutton and Wool Sheep — Shropshires as Mut- 
ton Producers — Wool and Hoofs — Sheep Diseases and Dips — Foot Rot 
and Worms — How to Mend Broken Bones — A Word for the Goats. 

In sheep husbandry the first and main things to be considered as 
probable elements of success are the condition of the land and the 
nature of the rainfall. A broken country, high and dry, is far prefer- 
able to prairie land, although with proper care as to pasturage and 
the raising of suitable feed, farmers do make a success of sheep 
raising even on prairie lands, but they do it at an expenditure of far 
greater expense and labor than by placing the sheep in their natural 
country. 

The rainfall must be carefully considered, a comparatively dry 
climate above all else being a necessity for profitable sheep hus- 
bandry. Cold rains penetrate the very marrow of the sheep's bones, 
and unless the animal is carefully housed when such rains prevail loss 
is sure to follow. 

An abundance of pure water should also be available, notwith- 
standing the old notion, which is somewhat prevalent, that sheep 
drink little water. It is true they drink lightly each time, but if given 
free access to water will drink often during the day. No matter how 
heavy a dew may fall, or how full of juices the grass they eat, a flock 
of sheep rarely lies down for its midday rest without taking a drink 
of water. 

It is not always possible to give sheep pure and cool water, but the 

line should be drawn at stagnant pools. If they cannot get water 

from a stream they should be furnished with their drink from a well. 

529 



53° PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Half or more of the farms in the country lack in facilities for obtain- 
ing water. There is nothing that pays so well as a permanent supply 
of good water on a farm, and this is especially true of a sheep farm. 
A well at the place where four fields join will supply all of them and 
take up practically no space. If a windmill is kept in operation at 
such a well and provision made for carrying away the waste water a 
pure supply may be had all the time for all the farm stock. 

Horses and cattle are usually well cared for in the matter of water, 
but the uncomplaining sheep very often goes thirsty and miserable 
because he does not drink half a barrel of water at a time. Weight 
for weight, a flock of sheep will probably drink more water than a 
herd of cattle. 

Sheep as Weed Exterminators and Fertilizers. — With favorable sur- 
roundings the sheep has several advantages over other live stock as 
a profitable investment. One of the chief advantages is that he is 
particularly fond of weeds and saves the farmer much labor and 
expense in the work of clearing off his land. According to an 
authority there are nearly 600 varieties of known weeds, of which 
sheep will eat 515 kinds, while horses, cattle and hogs will eat but a 
few varieties. 

Weeds increase in number and variety as the country grows 
older. They are found most abundantly in the old countries of 
Europe. Their steady increase in this country demands that farmers 
should raise sheep as among other means looking to their extermina- 
tion. By all means get two or three ewes already bred and give them 
the run of that foul pasture. Increase the flock by breeding and 
purchase, if advisable, until the number is sufficient to keep down 
the weeds on a given area. 

The British farmers call the sheep the rent payer, and their agri- 
cultural methods and systems are based on the keeping of the sheep. 
We envy these people their big crops, twice or thrice as large as ours, 
but we never think that the sheep is one of the chief reasons for this. 
But there, sheep are kept for the purpose of enriching the land for 
the growth of these big crops. We don't look at things this way, but 
we should, and every farmer should make it his business to procure 
and keep a flock of sheep, if for no other purpose than that of 
enriching his land and doubling or trebling the product of his fields. 

Weeds are not altogether useless from the point of view of a 



SHEEP AND GOATS 531 

grazing sheep. We call the dandelion a weed, and a good many men 
have been known to wish it never would appear, yet a sheep eats it 
with avidity and looks for more of the same kind. The dandelion is 
a blood purifier and the sheep eats it with benefit. Sheep are more 
subject to liver diseases than any other domestic animal, and for such 
disorders the dandelion is a recognized remedy. 

Shepherd's purse, sometimes called lamb's quarter, tastes some- 
thing like watercress, and is a very common weed in many parts of 
the country where sheep are not kept. Where sheep can find it they 
eat it in preference to almost anything else. The bark of elder- 
bushes, the bitter barks of crab-apple and wild cherry trees, cowslips, 
plantain, and even some kinds of thistles, are eaten by sheep almost 
as freely as the best grass. Ragweeds disappear from sheep 
pastures, and foxtail grass is readily eaten by them when they can 
get it before it becomes woody. Sheep seem to have been created 
with an appetite that is all embracing when it comes to vegetation, 
for they destroy with impartial greediness all sorts of weeds and 
berry bushes, and are not above doing a very neat job of cleaning the 
bark off apple trees if given a chance and confined in an orchard 
where they cannot find the bitter weeds they seem to need to main- 
tain good health. 

While no one should allow his farm to become so seeded with 
weeds that it requires the services of a flock of sheep to clear them 
out, it will be found much easier to keep a farm clean when there 
are sheep on it to destroy the weeds as fast as they appear. In a 
system of rotation of crops sheep could be turned into the fields 
about every year at some time during the summer. If this is done 
they will keep the weeds in close subjection without money and with- 
out price. 

Sheep that graze in woods do some damage, mainly to the young 
shoots of the trees. They nibble off nearly all the young leaves as 
they come above the ground. Furthermore, they trample and com- 
pact the soil considerably, thus lessening its absorbing capacity. This 
is a serious consideration in the forest, where the soil is never 
loosened by cultivation. 

Sheep Feed. — Sheep can be turned into corn-fields before the corn 
is gathered without damage to the corn and with advantage to the 
sheep. They must have access to rock salt. They eat very much of 



53 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the weeds, as stated, but of course prefer grass and grain. To keep 
sheep in good condition through the winter, an ear of corn with 
plenty of clover hay is sufficient, and a man of large experience 
gives each sheep, on pasture in summer and when changing from 
pasture to clover hay, an ounce of salt every day, and considers it of 
most vital importance to the welfare of his flocks. When you have 
a lot of pumpkin seeds which no other live stock will eat, give them 
to your sheep. A flock of sheep will eat all the seeds from all the 
pumpkins you will split and place before them. They are fond of 
the seeds, and they thrive on the diet. 

It is now generally admitted that the greatest forage crop for 
sheep is Dwarf Essex rape. It was introduced from England into 
the United States several years ago by that tireless agricultural 
worker, Prof. Thomas Shaw, of the University of Minnesota. Rape 
belongs to the cabbage family, the leaves having pretty much the 
same flavor. The seed is sown at the rate of three pounds per acre 
in drills eighteen inches apart, the land having been prepared 
practically the same as for corn. Seed may be sown broadcast, but 
drilling is preferable for the reason that it is advisable to cultivate 
the plants. This is done with a weeder. Rape may be sown with 
oats at rate of one to one and one-fourth pounds per acre; it also may 
be sown from the middle of May to the first of August in corn 
between rows after late cultivation. After the plants have attained 
considerable size, and it is desired to utilize the forage, they may be 
cut with a scythe and fed as needed. Rape is not a horse feed nor 
should it be fed to milch cows. It is above all things a sheep feed. 
It yields an enormous crop of forage, some fourteen tons per acre, 
and will grow successfully in most parts of the Mississippi valley. 
Seed may be bought for about 15 cents per pound. 

"The Time for Mating Sheep depends upon several considerations, 
the market for lambs and the object for which they are raised," says 
Prof. Thomas Shaw in the American Sheep Breeder. "When the 
buildings are not warm we should not have the lambs come before 
the weather is mild and settled in the spring; otherwise we will 
lose many of them, and the loss of a number of lambs determines 
the question of profit or loss on the investment. If we have good 
warm buildings, and we are not too far away from the market, and 
moreover, if we have a good kind of mutton sheep, we can grow, 



SHEEP AND GOATS 533 

early lambs and sell them at good prices. When markets are far 
away, it will be well as a rule to have the lambs come late. 

"When we raise breeding stock for sale, it is to have them come 
early, for persons who buy lambs for breeding want to have them 
large. More especially is this true of males. When a man visits a 
flock to buy ram lambs he invariably picks upon large ones. A ram 
lamb will answer for breeding to a flock of not more than twenty 
females — that is to say, if he is an early lamb. If he is not, he should 
not be mated with so many ewes. To mate a young lamb with a 
large number of ewes injures his growth, and it might also injure his 
breeding powers. But all things considered, it would be better to 
buy a shearing — that is, a ram that has only been once shorn. Such 
a ram is in full vigor, and should, therefore, get good, strong Iambs. 

"We get the best lambs from rams when one, two and three years 
old, because they are then in the best vigor. At these ages they 
may be mated with 100 females if they are well fed. They may be 
used as old as five, six or seven years, when they are really good 
ones, but we may expect better lambs from them when they are 
younger. Ewes should not be bred until after they have been shorn 
once. If they are bred as lambs they will not grow so large them- 
selves, nor will they raise large lambs, so that when anyone practices 
breeding his females as lambs he certainly does what will injure the 
size of the sheep. When a young ewe has to nourish a lamb and 
make growth herself, the lamb is a drain upon her system and she 
cannot nourish it so well either before or after birth, because she 
has to do something at building up her own frame. 

"The best lambs may be expected from ewes two, three and four 
years old at the time they drop their lambs, but sometimes it may 
pay to keep them longer. It will be necessary to change the rams 
every two years where the flock is not large, for if this is not done, 
then the ram would be bred to females of its own offspring, and 
that would be termed in-and-inbreeding, which, if practiced, would 
lead to harmful results. The ewes should be in good condition at 
the mating season. If they are poor they will not likely breed until 
they put on a good deal of flesh. This may prolong the lambing 
season so that it will extend over many weeks, which is not desirable." 

Controlling Sex. — Experiments in controlling the sex among sheep 
have reached such a stage in France that the experimenters 



534 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

have reached the conclusion that this can be done to an appreciable 
extent. 

The rule seems to be that to produce the most males in a flock 
the ewes must be bred to rams over four years old, the average of 
observance in such cases being 55 males and 35 females. When 
yearling rams were used with ewes ranging from two to four years, 
the average was but 35 males to 76 females. Yearling rams, it has 
also been found in experiments carried on in this country, but with- 
out the careful observation exercised in France, nearly always 
produce an excess of females, and the older rams, particularly those 
above four years, an excess of males. 

EWES AND LAMBS 

The spring is the most favorable season for the arrival of lambs 
and the majority of them commence to make their appearance by the 
beginning of March. A few safe general rules may be laid down for 
the care of both ewes and lambs. 

Keep the ewes away from the other stock. 

See to it that the lambs get plenty of sunshine, that giver and 
preserver of life. 

Keep the young lambs off the snow. When they are a few weeks 
old they will be able to travel about with their dams without danger 
of injury by snow. 

Provide comfortable quarters for the ewes about to lamb. Keep 
the cold rains off and give them as much feed as they want. 

Put ewes with newly born lambs in separate pens for a few days. 
Thus will the lambs become acquainted with their respective 
mothers. 

When the lamb arrives, see to it that it gets a fill of milk before 
you leave it. 

If the ewe doesn't present twins, don't worry; one good lamb is 
worth two runts. 

Make a visit to the lambing quarters the last thing at night to 
see how things are going. Do the same the first thing in the morning. 

Keep plenty of sweet hay where the ewes can get to it handily. 

The lambs will commence eating it when they are about three 
weeks old. 

When the lamb'is found, if he be numb and inactive, take him to 



SHEEP AND GOATS 535 

the house and give him careful attention. Wrap him in a piece of 
flannel and warm him gently. 

Special attention should be given ewes and lambs, when the latter 
arrive in winter. In this case common sense, of course, would tell 
the breeder that warm shelter and bedding, first of all, must be 
provided. The fact that the dams have long wool and do not suffer 
from the cold is no reason that the tender lambs will be unharmed 
thereby. If the lambs are chilled through and through at birth and 
not given personal attention very soon afterward, the probability is 
they will die. 

The ewe about to bring lambs should be put in a yard or pen in 
which there is a shed or comfortable house of some kind for her 
protection from cold. An abundance of straw should be given for 
bedding, and the feed regulated to suit her needs. Sheaf oats, which 
are about the best balanced ration for any kind of stock, should be 
fed liberally, and fresh water, not chilled, though, should be given 
her twice a day. 

Some lambs when born are very strong and are able soon to get 
up and find where their living comes from, while others are weak 
and helpless for several days after birth. The latter kind should 
have the care and attention of the stockman. If the breed is worth 
breeding, then the lambs are worth giving the best care. After 
they are started and get strength, they are generally able to take 
care of themselves with proper feed. 

The ewe mothering two lambs needs extra feed and care, as she 
has to eat enough to sustain three lives. And as the lambs grow 
older, the demand on her system increases. Food should be given 
accordingly. Clover and timothy hay, shelled corn and oats, will 
supply the material of which milk is made and flesh formed. The 
corn furnishes fat — heat — while the hay and oats produce muscle and 
give strength to the bones. Feed generously. 

Never permit the ewes and lambs to run with larger stock — 
horses, mules and cattle — as when the horses, especially, get to 
romping and prancing, they are likely to paw a lamb or two into the 
earth, and in many cases break down a ewe in the back. Another 
thing: Keep ewes about to lamb away from the hogs — old sows are 
prone to make a meal of a fresh-born lamb if given access to it. 

Do not feed the breeding ewes corn for a month before lambing 



536 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

time. Give them a moderate amount of clover hay, some bright 
straw to nibble at, and a mixture of two-thirds wheat bran to one- 
third of ground oats as a grain ration, or corn and oats, unground. 
Give plenty of water and an opportunity to run in the sunshine on 
fair days, but do not make breeding ewes go out and in through a 
narrow door, as they are almost certain to crowd each other, and this 
crowding frequently results in abortion or injuries that end in the 
death of the animal. Oil meal should not be fed to breeding ewes 
except in very small quantities, and it is not necessary at all where 
clover hay is available. If sugar beets, mangels or turnips are to be 
had they are among the best things for breeding ewes that can be 
found. 

The lamb should be supplied with a grain ration separate from 
that of the ewes. This can be easily arranged by constructing a little 
pen sufficiently large for the lambs to enter and eat, but not large 
enough for ewes to crowd in or reach the grain. This little pen can 
be made in one corner of the sheep-shed, the size depending entirely 
on the number of lambs that are to be fed. In making it some 
small gates can be temporarily placed, being removed when there 
is no further need of the pen. A little shelf should be fixed in the 
pen, on which bran can be placed for the lambs to go to as they are 
inclined. 

MEAT, WOOL AND HOOFS 

This classification may seem strange to some farmers; and it 
might be strained, were it not for the fact that trimming and careful 
attention, in all respects, to the hoofs of the sheep are especially 
necessary to the health of the best wool-bearing varieties. Shrop- 
shires, which are the typical mutton sheep, need comparatively little 
attention in this regard. Facts are presented below of value to the 
breeders of mutton sheep and those who raise their stock for the 
production of wool. 

Sheep as Mutton Producers— Shropshires. — In his address before the 
Iowa Agricultural Board, Prof. John A. Craig pointed out the good 
and bad qualities in sheep from the butcher's point of view. His 
remarks were to the effect that to form a basis for estimating the 
good and bad qualities of sheep, it is best to first consider the carcass 
and that from the butcher's point of view. The different parts of the 



SHEEP AND GOATS 537 

Iamb show a wide variation. The neck has a value of only one cent 
per pound, the shoulder two cents and the shanks the same. The 
rib running from the point of the shoulder to the loin has a value 
of nine cents per pound, and the same is true of the loin, while the 
leg of mutton or the "giggots," as they are sometimes called, have 
the highest value per pound of any other part, as they are quoted at 
ten cents. The breast, however, has the low value of two cents per 
pound in Chicago markets. From these facts it will be seen that 
the back and the development of the leg are the most important 
points to criticise in the form of the fat lamb. 

In what has preceded, attention has been given particularly to 
the perfections, but there are many defects worthy of being 
mentioned that are characteristic of fat lambs. Very often the top 
of the shoulder is not covered sufficiently with flesh, letting the top 
of the blade come out too sharp and bare. This part, for at least the 
length of the hand, should be flat and well covered with flesh in a 
fatted sheep. The ribs should spring out from the body and all be well 
covered with firm flesh. The backbone should not stand prominent 
at any point, as it is sometimes at various points along the back- 
Frequently it is grooved, on account of the development of flesh 
along it, but it is better to be perfectly flat and smooth. The loin in 
some lambs rises, and this is specially a bad defect when it is also 
bare of flesh. The hind quarters frequently shrink away towards 
the tail-head and down the thigh. This should not be, as the hind 
quarter should continue straight and full. From the hip to hock the 
fat sheep should be especially strong. Not only should the leg be 
full and plump with muscle on the outside, but between the legs in 
the twist the flesh should run well towards the hock and compel the 
hind legs to stand wide apart. Badly set hocks often interfere with 
the development of the hind quarter, and they also are as bad an 
eye-sore as broken down pasterns. 

After the form of the sheep has been carefully gone over, the 
quality should be noted. The cleanliness of the bone, the apparent 
strength of it, and the nature of the hair which covers the face and 
legs should be noted. These are important features in either breed- 
ing sheep or fat sheep. It is, perhaps, most valuable from the 
butcher's standpoint, because the waste is less from a sheep of 
good quality than it is from one that is inferior, but sheep of the 



538 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

best quality will not dress much over fifty per cent, of their live 
weight. 

Shropshires have long been known as the "gentleman's sheep" 
because of their neat and compact bodies. As mutton producers 
they have no superiors, and the lambs from Shropshire ewes grow 
to weigh forty or fifty pounds at a very early age. 

"In a flock we know of," said a writer in the Farmer's Voice, 
"there is a ewe with twin lambs, either of which will weigh forty 
pounds, and this ewe has furnished milk for both the lambs and has 
kept mutton fat all the time on good hay, corn-stover and a little 
grain, chop and cottonseed meal. There are something over fifty 
ewes in the flock and they have nearly fifty lambs. Not one of the 
ewes failed to own her lamb, and all but one of them proved good 
milkers. The wool from this flock will pay the cost of keeping for 
a year, and the lambs can be sold any day to a local butcher for $4 
each. The ewes are worth probably $7 each and are the most 
profitable stock kept on the farm. 

"Shropshires have been so carefully bred and so skillfully 
selected that they breed very true to the required type, and in a 
flock of pure-bred Shropshires there will be very few culls. No 
breed of sheep produces more choice mutton in proportion to live 
weight than these, and the farmer who chooses them as his breed 
will not make a mistake." 

Wool and Hoofs. — "The first thing to be considered is how to put 
up the wool so as to give the buyer a good impression when he first 
looks at it. There are a number of ways of tying the fleece. Some 
prefer using a box into which the fleece is pressed and tightly tied, 
so that when taken out it retains the shape of the box," says a wool 
merchant. "The fleece that is most attractive and seems to get the 
most comments of approval from buyers in general is the one that is 
simply folded in as loosely as possible to have it hold its shape, 
using as little twine as will accomplish the object. 

"Where this is well done, light, bulky-looking fleece is made, 
which in the market is more appreciated than the more symmetrical 
fleece that comes from the box, the criticism on the latter being that 
pressing it so tightly gives it a soggy and heavy appearance that 
repels the buyer. The twine used should be the regular wool twine, 
and under no circumstances should sisal twine be used. By sisal 



SHEEP AND GOATS 539 

twine I mean such as is commonly known as hide rope and some 
kinds of binding twine made from the sisal fibre. The reason why it 
should not be used is that its fibres intermingle with the wool and 
cannot be got out in process of manufacture, and have to be picked 
out of the goods in the shape of specks. 

"Now as to the condition of the fleece before it is tied. It should 
be free from all tags and heavy skirt locks, and as free as possible of 
all seeds, chaff or straw as well as sand burs. Seeds and chaff are 
very hard to get out of wool, and where the fleece is bad with them 
the value is hurt more than burs affect its value." 

As a wool sheep there is little dispute, on the whole, as to the 
superiority of the Merino over all other varieties. Some breeders 
prefer a cross between the Cotswold and the Merino, as better 
adapted to withstand the severity of the Northern climate, and go 
so far as to name them Cotswold Merinos, or American Cotswolds. 

Sheep's hoofs are more or less inclined to overgrow their natural 
length. This seems more particularly true of the fine wool breeds 
than of the larger English sheep, although it is not uncommon 
among the latter. The feet of any sheep should be watched carefully 
that the hoofs be kept within reasonable limits. Overgrowths are 
often extreme, though never in a flock cared for by a good sheep- 
man. As a rule, if a sheep's hoofs are trimmed once a year at 
shearing that will be all the attention they will need, at least until 
they go into winter quarters. Once a year is sufficient for some 
sheep, while there is occasionally one that never needs any 
trimming. 

Overgrown hoofs can be readily trimmed with mallet and chisel, 
but the most convenient thing is a pair of regular trimmers. There 
are one or two makes on the market that are very good for the 
purpose. A pair of common hand pruning shears will do the 
business satisfactorily. The two kinds are made on the same 
principle, with the possibility of better workmanship and cutting 
features in favor of the pruners. 

Hoofs should be trimmed, not only for the convenience of the 
sheep in traveling, but to insure the health of the hoofs. Hoof- 
growth is stimulated by low ground, and the moisture that forces 
the hoofs has a striking tendency to promote hoof disorders. 

Irregular shaped hoofs have a tendency to collect filth and 



$4<> PRACTICAL RECIPES 

retain it indefinitely. A sheep that is at all inclined towards foot 
rot will have the trouble greatly aggravated by this collection. 

SHEEP DISEASES 

Sheep are subject to all the diseases which afflict other live stock, 
such as dysentery, colic, bronchitis, catarrh, and lung fever. They 
are particularly addicted to foot rot and diseases of the skin caused 
by tick and lice. The ailments common to all animals may be 
treated with the simple remedies already given, but those diseases 
of the hoofs and skin which have such an effect upon the wool- 
producing capacity of the sheep require special mention. 

Dips and Skin Diseases. — In the treatment of skin diseases, the 
great study has been to provide some dip which will kill the 
parasites without injuring the wool. 

It has been only a few years since dipping sheep became general 
all over the country, because it has not been long that dips not 
detrimental to both the sheep and their wool have been obtainable. 
A few years ago no flockmaster thought of dipping his sheep unless 
they were afflicted with scab, because it was known the dips in use 
would injure the wool and interfere with the thrift of the animal, 
and dipping was resorted to only because it was the lesser of two 
evils. 

The old-time remedy for scab was a dip composed of lime and 
sulphur, a most diabolic compound in which to dip any living animal, 
and one that should never be used except when it is impossible to 
obtain anything else, and then only as a last resort to save the life 
of the sheep. 

No one nowadays ever would think of dipping a sheep in a tub 
of whitewash, but this was what was done when the old dip was used. 
For one thing it would be a clear case of cruelty to animals, and for 
another it would be applying a remedy about as bad as the worst 
disease imaginable. Lime is of such a nature that it takes the life 
out of wool, making it harsh and brittle, and interfering with both 
growth and quality. 

There is no excuse in these days for resorting to such a 
compound for the purpose of curing scab or destroying ticks. There 
are on the market dips that not only cure skin diseases of sheep and 
kill all the parasites that afflict them, but actually improve the 



SHEEP AND GOATS 541 

quality of the wool and so promote its growth that it is a matter 
of economy to use them, as they increase the profits of the wool 
grower more than the cost for material and labor. 

The following remedies are said to be good: Carbolic Acid 
Dip: soap, one pound; crude carbolic acid, sixteen ounces; water, 
fifty gallons. Dissolve the soap in a gallon or more of boiling water, 
add the acid and stir thoroughly. Keep the mixture well thinned, 
and do not let it get into the mouth, nostrils or eyes of [the sheep. 
Hold each sheep in the bath not less than half a minute. 

Kerosene Emulsion Dip: fresh skimmed milk, one gallon; 
kerosene, two gallons. Churn together till emulsified, or mix and 
put into the mixture a force pump and direct the stream from the 
pump back into the mixture. The emulsification will take place 
more rapidly if the milk be added while boiling hot. Use one 
gallon of this emulsion to each ten gallons of water required. 

Simple tobacco is recommended by many. After the sheep have 
been sheared two weeks boil a refuse quantity of tobacco leaves, or 
five or six pounds of plug tobacco. Put the liquid into a trough and 
dip the sheep. The wash will be sufficient for about one hundred. 

Foot Rot. — Damp, low ground is productive of foot rot among 
sheep, and once a sheep has contracted the disease it is easily taken 
by the flock, and is so contagious that if a flock in good health be 
put in a damp, muddy field, where sheep with the disease have been 
kept, every sheep in the healthy flock will in a short time become 
infected. To cure the disease put them in a dry, high pasture or a 
dry pen, and apply remedies known to cure the affected parts. 

A simple ointment for both sheep and cattle consists of four 
ounces of melted lard and Venice turpentine, with one ounce of 
blue vitriol. 

When any cracks appear in the hoof, attended with heat, apply 
oil of turpentine and common brandy. If the disease has been 
long seated, after cleaning the hoof and paring away the diseased 
parts apply such caustics as sulphuric acid or nitrate of mercury. 

After washing and paring the hoofs others recommend that the 
sheep stand in quick lime, strewn on the floor of the pen to a depth 
of three or four inches. 

For Worms. — The most effective remedy for round worms in 
sheep — those that are found in the dung — is to give one-half ounce 



S4 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

fluid extract of spigelia at a dose in a little milk, on an empty 
stomach; follow this in ten hours by giving four ounces epsom salts 
and a dessertspoonful of ground ginger dissolved in water, at one dose. 

Another good remedy is one-half ounce of turpentine in four 
ounces of raw linseed oil, at one dose. 

To Mend Broken Bones. — Sheep have weak bones, and if one of the 
legs is caught between bars partly let down, the bone may be 
snapped like a dry twig. Then the shepherd who does not under- 
stand his business fully thinks he has a sheep lost and knocks it on 
the head. This is waste of the animal, whose bones will mend readily 
by simple treatment. Take some thick straw-board or wrapping 
paper, steeped in a thin mixture of plaster and water. Set the 
broken bone in its natural position and wrap a few strips of this 
paper around the leg. Then take a long bandage of cotton cloth 
and dip this in the plaster, wrapping this over the paper. It will set 
stiff and hard in a very short time, and by this support the bone will 
unite in about ten days. 

A WORD FOR THE GOATS 

"In my correspondence with parties inquiring about the Angora 
goats," writes a specialist on the subject, "it has struck me that few 
realize how little these animals interfere with the grazing of other 
stock wherever there is browsing in the pasture. 

"If confined exclusively on grass and clover they will thrive on 
this class of feed; indeed they will grow fatter and lazier than where 
they have bushes, briars and weeds, though they infinitely prefer the 
latter class of herbage if they have their choice about it, and it is for 
this reason that they can be turned to so profitable an account in 
pastures where portions of the land are of a character that is of but 
little use for other stock, and it is in this that one of the chief 
elements of profit in the Angora goat comes in. They will turn into 
a mercantile product much that would otherwise be absolutely 
wasted, and in addition to this will enrich the more open grass 
lands with their droppings. 

"I am not discussing here the feature of turning lands heavily 
coated with underbrush into blue grass pastures, which is what they 
are often kept for in many parts of Iowa and neighboring states. 
Their mohair (or goats' wool) has a regular market value, and there 



SHEEP AND GOATS $43 

are several mills in the United States using the product exclusively 
in the manufacture of plushes and other mohair goods. 

"The meat of the Angora goat is excellent and of much 
strengthening value for weak children and invalids, and this is also 
true of the milk, and both are often prescribed by physicians. The 
skins when taken off during winter, when the hair is long, make very 
handsome rugs, when properly dressed, and are much used for 
trimming capes worn by ladies and children." 

There are other points than those mentioned above in favor of 
the Angora goat. Not only are the animals prolific land fertilizers, 
but they enrich the highest and poorest portions of the farm, while 
horses and cattle fertilize the richest portions, where the grass 
grows. In summer, when browsing, their flesh has a very delightful 
flavor, between venison and mutton, which gives the name "venison" 
to the meat. In winter, when fattened on grain, it loses that flavor, 
but acquires that of mutton. It has none of that "woolly" taste of 
mutton which is so objectionable to many people. Thousands of 
goats are killed in our packing houses and sold as "well-dressed 
mutton." Only an expert can tell the difference, as their carcasses 
appear the same when hanging in the market. They will dress out 
a larger per cent, of meat than sheep, and their meat is more juicy 
than mutton and has a finer flavor. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
HOUSEHOLD PETS 

Birds — Their Chief Dangers: Improper Food, or Feeding, and Exposure to 
Sudden Draughts — How to Treat Them for Colds, Loss of Voice, Diarrhea 
and Costiveness — Moulting, Care of Feet, Etc. — Obstruction of Oil Qland 
— Canary Birds — Mating and Care of the Young — Mocking Birds and 
Parrots — Bird Foods for All — Red Bird and Robin — Dogs and Cats — How 
to Banish Fleas — The Administering of Medicines — The Treatment^and 
Habits of— Rabbits, Mice, Rats, Etc.— Gold and Silver Fish. 

There are few households in which at least some member of the 
family is not fond of pets and would not like to have at hand well- 
tried rules for their care in health and disease. Each domesticated 
animal has ailments specially his own, to which we shall give the 
most attention, as well as many to which all live stock are subject and 
to which the same general treatment applies. 

Among the favorite household pets birds and dogs probably take 
the lead, with cats a close second. Fishes also come in for a large 
share of feminine attention. Rabbits, white mice, and guinea pigs 
seem to be going out of favor. The bulk of this chapter will, there- 
fore, be devoted to those household pets — birds, dogs and cats — 
which, although natural enemies to each other, have been adopted 
by men and women for the pleasure they give, either by exhibitions 
of intelligence and affection or by melody of song and beauty of 
coloring. 

BIRDS 

The closest attention to the needs of the feathered tribe is 
required to keep them in such bodily condition, while in confinement, 
that their coats may show a healthful gloss and freshness of color, and 
their songs be free and sweet. The two chief concerns should be 
constant care in their diet and the guarding against sudden draughts 

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MOUSEHOLD PETS 545 

Or changes of temperature. Birds are especially subject to lice and 
colds, and are, as a rule, more injured by overfeeding than under- 
feeding. By taking a severe cold they sometimes lose their voices 
entirely, as do people, and whatever affects their general health has 
a bad effect on their plumage. 

When birds are ailing a safe general rule to follow is to keep 
them as quiet as possible, and for this purpose to throw a thin cloth 
or newspaper over the cage. If they show symptoms of a bad cold 
add to their regular food a paste made of hard boiled eggs, corn- 
meal and grated apples, plentifully spiced with cayenne pepper. If 
they lose their voice it may often be brought back by dissolving rock 
candy in their drinking water. Diarrhea may be cured by placing a 
rusty nail in the drinking water, and costiveness by giving them green 
fruit. When they are moulting give them warm, nourishing rood and 
plenty of sunshine, being careful to keep them out of draughts. The 
feet of birds are well adapted to carry around filth and to breed 
disease generally, and too much attention cannot be given to them. 
They should be cleaned and bathed often in warm water, and if they 
become warty or sore, grease and fresh cream should also be applied. 
Keep plenty of clean sand in the cage, and upon the first appearance 
of lice do not for a minute neglect to use your insect powder. 

A very important consideration in the proper care of the bird, as 
well as toward keeping the feathers in good order, is that his 
plumage should receive unobstructed its natural supply of oil. This 
supply is derived from a gland above the tail, which sometimes 
becomes obstructed with oil. The bird then becomes puffed up, 
uneasy and unless relieved sickly. The course to be pursued is to 
run the point of a sharp needle into the lump on the back of the bird, 
which marks the presence of the gland; repeat this several times and 
grease the points of perforation with a little butter to prevent 
scabbing. 

Canary Birds. — As a rule birds with long, straight and tapering 
bodies make the best singers. The German varieties are generally 
preferred, because of the study which for centuries the people of that 
country have made in selection and breeding. Of the German 
canaries the St. Andresburg is one of the best. 

But the breeder of canary birds must neither rely upon appear- 
ance nor reputation alone. Never buy a bird until you have heard 



54& PRACTICAL RECIPES 

him sing. The best time to mate is in the winter, when the average 
temperature of the modern house is above seventy degrees. Some 
who carry sentiment even into the raising of canaries prefer St. Val- 
entine's day above all other times for the caging of the pretty couple. 
The two generally fight for a few days, then "make up," and soon 
after commence to carry around any little pieces of paper or other 
material which they can find and which they evidently believe can be 
used in nest-making. This is the time to place a nest for them in 
the cage and then leave them alone except to keep the cage supplied 
with plenty of fine gravel, or sand, the inevitable cuttlefish bone and 
the proper food. For canary birds which are breeding are recom- 
mended as a suitable diet canary seed, bread, the yolk of boiled eggs 
and a little sugar, with lettuce or other greens in moderation. 

Usually the female will lay her first egg in eight days from the 
time of mating and in two weeks will hatch out her first bird. Four 
broods in a season may be raised, although it is best to limit the 
number to two or three. If one bird is raised from four eggs it may 
be considered a fair proportion. 

There are various reasons why the eggs may never become birds. 
The hen may desert the eggs, in which case they are probably bad, 
and should be thrown away. She may eat her eggs; as she is then 
probably underfed, the remedy is to feed her well early in the morn- 
ing or late at night. If the hen neglects her young, the same cause 
also is likely to be at the bottom of her treatment, and she should be 
given plenty of delicate food. 

"As soon as the young are hatched," says an authority, "place 
beside the usual feeding trough a cup containing finely grated hard 
boiled egg and stale bread rubbed fine and soaked in milk, also one 
containing crushed rapeseed boiled and afterward washed with fresh 
water. The young may be placed in separate cages in about four 
weeks." Then their instruction in singing should commence, which 
consists, as far as the man or woman is concerned, in hanging the 
young bird near some first-class singer. 

In order to distinguish the male, or the singer, from the female it 
may be stated that the body of the male is usually laiger, longer and 
more tapering. The male generally has more yellow above the bill, 
under the throat and in the pinions of the wings. The throat of the 
male vibrates while singing; that of the hen never does. 



HOUSEHOLD PETS 547 

A few good suggestions are now made in regard to mating for 
color and singing qualities, as follows: 

"If you desire to get pied birds, which are generally strong, 
hearty birds, get a rich, yellow-splashed male, and mate it with a 
yellow hen; if it is desired to get cinnamon-colored birds, a dark- 
green male bird and a very light or white hen will often produce 
them; and a very light cinnamon bird mated with a green one will 
often produce a dove or fawn-colored variety, which are very 
handsome birds. Most authorities agree that the mating of topknot 
birds will produce bare polls, but this is contradicted by many who 
have raised beautiful crested birds from a male and female, having 
only moderately good topknots. 

"A great improvement can be made in the form of the bird most 
often met with, and known as the German bird, by crossing it with 
the part Belgian or long-breed variety; and when the male bird is a 
good songster the offspring will be the same, if not better songsters 
than their parent bird. The Belgian variety is usually not an extra 
good songster, and it is a delicate species in this climate." 

The general instructions given in regard to the treatment of bird 
diseases must be applied particularly to canaries. This variety is 
very prone to ailments caused by improper food, or too much of it. 
The belly swells and, on blowing up the feathers, is seen to be 
covered with distended blood vessels. Scabs sometimes appear 
upon the head. The remedy is to take away the rich canary seed 
and supply grit instead, adding a little saffron to the water and 
rubbing almond oil on the affected parts. For excessive perspiration, 
caused by warm weather or sitting too closely on the nest, a wash of 
salt and water is good. Sometimes the bird is egg-bound from cold; 
give her a little moist sugar, or a drop of castor oil and anoint her 
abdomen with warm sweet oil. When a bird continues sickly without 
apparent cause, give a little powdered charcoal mixed with bread 
and egg. 

Beside the standard canary seed (composed of canary, hemp, 
millet and rape), cuttle bone, hard-boiled egg, bread, apple, lettuce, 
etc., there are many foods prepared in the form of powders or 
pastes, which are especially suitable to the canary bird. One of 
these is the so-called German Paste which is made of blanched 
sweet almonds, one pound; pea meal, two pounds; butter, three 



548 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

ounces; saffron, a few grains; honey, a sufficient quantity. The paste 
is granulated by pressing it through a colander. Some add the 
yolks of two eggs. 

Another canary bird food consists of corn-meal, eight ounces; 
blanched sweet almonds, four ounces; fresh butter, one ounce; 
powdered sugar, one ounce; saffron, five grains, and one or two 
eggs. Pass the egg through a fine grater and add to the other 
ingredients. Beat to a smooth paste with cold water, and granulate 
the mass by passing through a coarse grater, then expose the product 
to the air in a warm place until quite hard and dry. 

Mocking Birds and Parrols. — Although almost entirely imitative, in 
which respect they resemble the lower races of mankind, mocking 
birds and parrots are among the most intelligent of the domesticated 
varieties, causing much amusement and not a little astonishment by 
their performances. But in order to get the most out of them, they 
must be well cared for. 

It takes three years for the mocking bird to mature. "The best 
time to buy," says a writer on the subject, "is in November, for then 
the bird will be through with its first moulting, which is most 
dangerous to all young birds, and more particularly to mocking and 
soft-feed birds in this climate. Before you get your bird, get a 
large cage and have it in readiness for him, and let it be such a cage 
as you will desire to keep him in for years; for of all birds the 
mocking bird dislikes to have any change made in his habitation." 

The food of the mocking bird must be sweet; for if at all sour it 
will give him the diarrhea, a common and often fatal disease to him. 
Pure mocking bird food should every morning be mixed with an 
equal quantity of finely grated raw carrot, or finely mashed boiled 
potato — perhaps alternating the carrot and the potato feed, with a 
portion of a hard boiled egg for variety. A pepper pod should be 
hung in the cage and a few insects or meal worms given daily. 
Gravel and water, of course, are necessary. With proper care a 
mocking bird can be kept in song for ten years and he sometimes 
lives twice that period. 

The following is offered as a good food for mocking birds: Mix 
together two quarts of corn-meal, two parts pea-meal, and one part 
moss-meal; add a little melted lard, but not sufficient to make the 
mixture too greasy, and sweeten with molasses. Fry in a frying-pan 



HOUSEHOLD PETS 549 

for one-half hour, stirring constantly, and taking care not to let it 
burn; this makes it keep well. Put it in a covered jar. The moss- 
meal is prepared by drying and grinding the imported German 
moss-seed. 

Another recipe for both mocking birds and nightingales is: Eight 
ounces of broken crackers, nine ounces of corn, two ounces of rice, 
one ounce of hemp seed and ten grains of capsicum. All the 
ingredients are mixed and reduced to coarse powder. 

The most beautiful of the parrots, of which there is a great 
variety, are not the talkers. The gray parrot is one of the best 
natured, hardy and talkable of them all. Equally as hardy and more 
cleanly is the double yellow-head, the Cuban parrot being an especial 
favorite, on account of its aptness to learn. 

It is well known that the quickest way to teach a parrot to speak 
is to place him near a talking bird. The parrots should be placed 
near enough to hear but not see each other, and the one will soon 
imitate the other. Other directions to be followed: "A good way is 
to speak to the bird at night; just when his cage has been covered 
over (which must always be done with a woolen rug in winter) repeat 
over several times in the same tone, the sentence you wish him to 
learn. He may not appear to notice at first, but some day, quite 
unexpectedly, he will repeat the sentence exactly in the same tone 
that he has heard it. He should at once be rewarded with a bit of 
sugar, or fruit, or any little dainty that he is fond of. Parrots are 
very quick at understanding that rewards are given for obedience. 

"Never allow a parrot to be startled or teased, or permit it to be 
fed indiscriminately by visitors. Keep the cage extremely clean; let 
it be wiped out and fresh sand given every day. Some birds drink 
very little, but they should always be able to get a drink of fresh 
water if they wish. It is also a good plan to let a small quantity of 
canary seed remain in the seed can; it is possible that the morning 
bread and milk may be forgotten and the seed will thus prevent the 
bird being starved." 

Fruits, seeds, roots and nuts are the natural and most wholesome 
food for parrots. Some give them a little meat, although it is con- 
sidered dangerous by others, on the ground that lean meat heats the 
blood and irritates the skin, while fat meat is productive of diarrhea. 

Tbe Red Bird, Robin, etc. — The red bird is one of the most beautiful, 



550 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

hardy and hearty of his kind. He is a loud and constant singer. 
Suitable foods for him are wild rice, wheat, canary, oats, sunflower 
and a little hemp; crackers soaked in hot milk; a little red pepper; 
worms and insects daily ; finely scraped lean meat ; occasionally a sweet 
apple core; with cuttle fish, red pepper pods, gravel and water always 
near. A specially prepared food for red birds consists of eight ounces 
of sunflower seed, ten ounces of canary seed, eight ounces of cracked 
wheat and six ounces of unshelled rice. All mixed and ground to a 
coarse powder. 

No one need be introduced to the robin — strong and cheerful. 
His song, however, even when the bird is taught young, never 
reaches much beyond a pleasant whistle. His food and general 
treatment should be similar to those of the red and mocking birds. 

Beside the varieties mentioned, American households have 
adopted, to some extent, the bobolink, goldfinch, brown thrush and 
nightingale. The small boy also has his pigeon — but its care has 
already been discussed, as it is now not so much a household pet as a 
profitable source of revenue to business men. 

DOGS AND CATS 

It is impossible here to write from the standpoint of the dog or 
the cat fancier. For the men who indulge in fancy breeds of dogs 
or the ladies who are absorbed in blooded cats, books upon books are 
now written. The aim of this section is simply to present a few 
practical suggestions as to the best way of caring for the average dog 
and cat of the household. 

As a rule, a puppy under six months old should never have meat 
given to it, and no raw meat, until it has reached the age of one year. 

Very young puppies should be fed upon bread and milk alone; 
when older, soup and bread added. A warm, dry bed is as necessary 
to the health of a puppy as of a child. 

It is generally known that the age of a dog may be told by his 
teeth; but exactly how this is done is not often known. The follow- 
ing, written by "one who knows," is explanatory: "A dog, as well as 
a horse, has a very visible mark in his teeth, which does not disappear 
totally until he is very near or fully six years old. Look to the four 
front teeth, both in the upper and lower jaw, but particularly to the 
teeth in the upper jaw; for in those four teeth the mark remains the 



HOUSEHOLD PETS 55* 

longest. At twelve months old you will observe every one of the 
four front teeth, both in the upper and under jaw, jagged and uneven. 
Between three and four years old these marks will be fully half worn 
down, and when they are quite flat and smooth you may conclude 
that the dog is at least six years old." 

You may have a white dog of which you are very proud, and wish 
to know of a simple way to keep him clean. Here it is: Make a 
good lather of white soap with a little spirits of turpentine; wash the 
dog as quickly as possible in this while it is warm, but not hot, taking 
care not to let the soapy lather get into its eyes. Have a tub of clean 
tepid water in which a little blue has been dissolved; when the coat 
is clean dip the dog into the blue-water and rinse out the soap. Then 
rub it well in a clean sheet before a fire; if the hair is long comb it 
out and brush it as it dries. The turpentine will kill fleas unless the 
dog is infested with them. 

If this is not enough, the oil of pennyroyal will certainly drive the 
fleas away; but a cheaper method, where the herb flourishes, is to 
dip either dogs or cats into a decoction of it once a week. Where 
the herb cannot be got, the oil may be procured. In this case, satu- 
rate strings daily with it and tie them around the necks of your dog 
or cat, which you can easily do while it is feeding. By repeating these 
applications every twelve or fifteen days, the fleas will certainly 
disappear. 

There are not a few diseases to which both dogs and cats are 
liable, virtually the same remedies being applied to each, except that 
the doses should be considerably less for cats. They are both subject 
to distemper, worms, colds and fits, and inflammation of the bowels, 
eyes and ears. 

Distemper is characterized by a running from the nose and eyes 
and a short, dry cough, followed by a wasting of the flesh, loss of 
strength and spirits, brain affection, paralysis of the extremities and 
convulsions. Give a teaspoonful of magnesia every other night, in 
the early stages, or the same quantity of washed flowers of sulphur. 

Another remedy for distemper is nitrate of potassium, four ounces; 
sulphur,, four ounces; charcoal, forty grains, and black antimony, 
forty grains. Reduce to powder, mix with lard or butter and make 
into thirty-grain balls, one each to be given morning and evening. 

For mange use soft soap and sulphur ointment. Worms are a 



552 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

frequent cause of fits and when they get into the nostrils or windpipe 
generally cause death. Powdered glass made up into a roll with 
butter or lard is often given with good effect for worms in the bowels. 
The following has been suggested as the best way to administer 
medicines: "In giving medicines to dogs, open the mouth of the 
animal and place in it crosswise a small stick of wood, then thrust 
the pill, capsule or bolus down the throat with the finger; if a liquid, 
insert the neck of the bottle on the side of the mouth and hold the 
head back so as to compel the dog to swallow. When administering 
to cats, the powder is best blown through a glass or rubber tube onto 
the roof of the mouth; the liquid medicine is best poured upon the 
front paws, which the animal will lick off to clean them." 

RABBITS, MICE, RATS, ETC. 

The boy of the family still occasionally breeds rabbits and is apt 
to prefer the old-fashioned pure white variety with pink eyes, rather 
than the more fancy stock. The young should not be taken from 
their parents until they are six weeks old. Their food, as the boy 
well knows, consists of grass, hay, vegetables, fruit, scraps of bread, etc. 

Like rabbits, white mice and rats are very prolific and pretty. 
The mice are perhaps the most intelligent of them all. Rabbits bring 
forth eight or ten young, four times a year; mice, from five to twelve, 
six times a year, and white rats have from eight to fourteen in a 
litter, as many times annually as the mice. This very truitfulness has 
proven one of their chief drawbacks as household pets. 

GOLD AND SILVER FISH 

Those who have taken the pains to keep those beautiful varieties 
of fish, originally brought from China and known as Gold, Sil/er 
and Pearl, will insist upon including them in the class of house- 
hold pets. They certainly often show a personal liking to those who 
feed and care for them, just like a cat or dog. At their regular hours 
of feeding they also seem to be in a pleasurable state of expectant 
excitement, not unlike the wild beasts at the public parks under 
similar circumstances. Such at least is the claim of their friends and 
keepers. 

Since the preparation of special fish foods and their sale at aquaria 
stores, it -is less than ever a difficult matter to keep the finny pets in 



HOUSEHOLD PETS 553 

good condition. They also do well on a little sweet cracker, or bread 
crumbled into the water. Either should be given in very small 
quantities, however, as if it sours in the water, the fish are apt to be 
injured. Fresh, cut earth worms are the best food possible. Fish dis- 
eases are few and easily detected; when a fish is sick he becomes faded 
in appearance and comes often to the surface for air. If he shows 
those symptoms he should be at once removed from the other fish. 

Fish should be kept in a cool place, and the sun, even in winter, 
should never be allowed to strike full upon the globe or tank in which 
they are confined. Do not forget to partially change the water 
several times during the week, or to place in the aquarium a good 
supply of sand and growing plants. The latter absorb the carbonic 
acid given off by the fish and, in turn, throw off the oxygen required 
to maintain the fish in vigorous life. 

Gold fish seem especially adapted for indoor or aquarium life. 
Although originally denizens of a warm clime, they are naturally 
hardy and, with proper care, will thrive. It may be, also, that, like 
the canary bird, they have been so long domesticated that they no 
longer need nature's surroundings. 

"They should be kept in a vessel of sufficient capacity," says an 
expert on the subject, "and be given fresh water every day, or at 
least every other day. It is best to clean the vessel then by washing 
it inside with a cloth. The fresh water ought to be clean and not 
too hard. It is not good to feed them as the food will only serve to 
render the water unfit for their existence; and, if renewed every day, 
the water itself furnishes them with enough material for their suste- 
nance. Fish kept in this way often perish for want of oxygen. 
Anything, therefore, which consumes it ought to be avoided; and 
this is a reason for not giving them any food. Green leaves of living 
plants have an opposite effect." 

The above remarks about feeding, especially apply when the 
householder relies upon natural food for her fish. They are not so 
pertinent when prepared food is used which is designed to dissolve 
without harming the water in any way. If the food is used, which 
is thus scientifically prepared, it is not, of course, necessary to change 
the water as often as when the fish rely upon the foreign substances 
which they find therein. But whatever kind of food is given, the 
growing plants should not be missing. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
BEES, HONEY AND WAX 

Italian Bees the Best Honey Makers — Advantages of Bee Farming — The Old 
Way and the New — Handling of Bees — Transferring and Doubling Up — 
Water and Food— Wintering of Bees — Laying Up Their Winter Stores — 
Proper Way of Feeding — Spring Dwindling — The Queen Bee and Her 
Brood — Foul Brood and How to Treat It — The Honey and Wax — Comb 
and Extracted Honey — Clarifying Honey — Adulterations and How to 
Detect Them — Beeswax — How to Prepare It. 

There is perhaps as much improvement in bees nowadays as there 
is in any other stock kept on the farm. So that if you have a few 
colonies of bees sitting about your place that have been there for 
years without any change of blood you are like the farmer who is 
satisfied with a scrub stock of horses, cattle, hogs, etc. Better give 
them away, or get some new queens and introduce them, and thus be 
up-to-date with your bees. 

As to breeds the Italian bees are the best, and the improved Ital- 
ians are better. Many are the varieties that have been brought to 
this country and thoroughly tested, only to prove the superiority of 
the Italians. Beekeepers are now breeding for length of tongues, 
and the "long-tongued" Italian bee will soon be sipping honey from 
the bottom of the red clover tubes. 

Having secured the best possible stock of bees from some reliable 
breeder, commence work in the early spring, as at this time one 
colony of bees is worth any three colonies at any other time of the 
year. While it is true that the bees sell a little cheaper in summer 
and autumn the difference is much in favor of spring purchases. A 
colony of bees, simply, is not all the beginner should have in starting 
with bees. He should also have a good bee smoker, some extra 
hives, and if timid about handling them, a bee veil will give him con- 

554 



BEES, frONEY AND WAX 

siderable more courage to start with; and it is an absolute necessity 
for the beginner. Extra hives, equipped with honey boxes, founda- 
tion starters, and a complete little outfit like this are the all-important 
things for the beginner to have. 

For ten or twelve colonies of bees one will need perhaps $10 
worth of surplus boxes, foundation, supers, etc., on hand ready for 
immediate use. To neglect having these will be a loss of fully ten 
times their cost. This is no high estimate of the loss at all, and it 
may double this. 

The matter of starting with bees with the intention of going into 
it extensively depends somewhat upon the locality as a good honey 
producer or whether or not many bees are there kept. Localities 
may be overstocked, so that the crop of honey cannot reach a profit- 
able basis. But this is rather the exception. One can easily attend to 
one hundred colonies and give them half his time. 

Bees may be kept on a waste piece of ground which would be of 
no use otherwise, and as they feed themselves and pay for being kept, 
it would seem that there should be more of them in the country. 
One does not have to own the broad acres from which the bees do 
their gleaning, nor build for them costly houses. The poorer a man 
is the less excuse he has for not having plenty of honey for himself 
and his family to eat. 

Two or three hives of bees even will supply an ordinary family 
with honey the year round, and in some years of excellent honey 
flows one hive will do it. There are some people who think bees 
dangerous to keep on the farm, and from fear of them do not get 
them. These same people may have a cross dog or a kicking mule 
from which more injury might occur in a week than would occur 
from bees in a year or a number of years. It is very foolish, indeed, 
to look upon the honey bee as an enemy in any sense, and a study 
into their nature and usefulness would allay all such suspicion. It is 
very strange that a very small per cent, of even the most intelligent 
readers on the farm know that honey bees are of great benefit, fruit 
bloom being largely dependent upon these insects for successful fertil- 
ization and the production of fruit. Every orchard should have bees 
in it; every farmer should have an orchard: so all farmers should 
keep bees. 

A Better Way Than (he Old. — "In early times we did not consider 



556 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

small swarms of much value, and neither were they," writes A. H. 
Duff, of Larned, Kansas, "with facilities we then had of caring for 
them. We had no foundation, and no movable frames to give them 
a start in their business, so they had to begin at the stump and build 
combs, fill and complete it with honey and brood, and by autumn 
they had not comb enough to cluster on in winter, nor honey to carry 
them through, so that we did not consider them worth hiving at 
swarming time, even as early as June or July. Now we hive them as 
late as September, or later if they want to swarm, and we can fix 
them up by giving them combs of honey and combs of brood, and 
we could send them directly into winter quarters the next day after 
they swarmed in good condition. So that the old adage 

'A swarm of bees in May is worth a stack of hay; 
A swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon; 
But a swarm in hot July is not worth a fisher's fly' 

is all exploded now. 

"A swarm of bees hived on a full set of combs already drawn out 
will fill the same with brood and honey in two or three days and be 
ready for surplus boxes if done during the honey season, where if 
hived in the old way they would be two or three weeks in accom- 
plishing the same amount of work. Foundation comb very nearly 
answers the purpose, and it is used now by almost every one who 
keeps bees, and in every case by the specialist. To increase bees by 
swarming under this process of management gives splendid results, 
and it takes but a short time to build up a large apiary from a tew 
colonies to start with. The cost of a full set of frames thus filled 
with the foundation is about seventy-five cents, and it adds fully one- 
half in value to the colony. It not only gives them a good start in 
business, but it insures nice, straight combs, which are easy of manip- 
ulation." 

Handling of Bees. — Bees are very kind and gentle if you treat them 
right. Now this is a remarkable assertion to make to many people. 
Even many farm beekeepers will say it is false and that the only 
way they can do anything with bees is to fight them with fire, slaps 
and kicks. Such beekeepers should go out of the business at once, 
and it would be better for both them and the bees to set the hives 
over a sulphur match. 



BEES, HONEY AND WAX 557 

It is a very easy matter to teach a colt to kick or bite by teasing 
and abusing, and it is a very easy matter to make a colony of bees 
cross and irritable by careless, rough handling. Bear in mind that 
bees do not like any rapid jerking or quick motion about the hive, 
and in all your movements about the apiary be slow and gentle. It 
has been said "speak to your horse as you would to a gentleman," 
and the same rule applies in the treatment of bees. Hence, if you 
would have gentle bees, when you wish to open a hive blow a little 
smoke in at the entrance, then wait for five minutes until the bees 
have filled themselves with honey, when they are like men after a 
good dinner — not disposed to be quarrelsome. Carefully pry or lift 
up one corner of the hive cover, taking care to avoid all snapping or 
jarring, and blow one or two puffs of smoke in under the cover, just 
enough to drive the bees down among the combs. 

When you wish to take out a comb gently loosen the ends of two 
or three combs next to it, using a chisel, screw-driver, or some 
implement strong enough for the purpose, always being careful not 
to pinch or hurt any of the bees, and to lift out the frames very 
slowly, returning them in the same manner. Do not attempt to 
handle bees immediately after a heavy shower, or when from any 
cause they have been compelled to stop working in the fields, as at 
such times they are liable to be cross and irritable. 

A very handy thing to have around the apiary when handling bees 
is a piece of burlap large enough to cover over the hive; this should 
be made wet, and after wringing the water out of it may be used to 
cover the hive when the cover is off, and will keep the bees down on 
the side where you are not working. 

Transferring a hive of bees is a good lesson for the amateur in 
handling. It is usually done in the spring, when there are few bees 
and little honey in the hives. First, get the new hive all in readiness 
to receive, and by the use of a good bee smoker, smoke the bees in 
the old hive by raising it a little from the bottom board and blowing 
the smoke well up among the insects. Continue smoking them 
moderately for a few minutes to allow them to fill up on honey, and 
again apply the smoker. Now turn the old hive bottom up, and if 
the bees come to the top to any extent, smoke them back down into 
the hive. With the necessary tools then draw out the nails, or cut 
them off, and take two sides off the hives. If any combs are fastened 



55 S PRACTICAL RECIPES 

to the inside of these, use a knife with long blade to cut them loose. 
Now cut out the first combs, and with a feather from the wing of a 
turkey brush the bees off and cut the comb to fit inside the new 
frames, and fasten it there by wrapping the frame with hard twine 
and tying in several places. Proceed with the next combs, and now 
brush the bees into the new hive where the first combs are placed, 
and so on until all are in the new hive. 

A colony may be without a queen, and if so, robber bees will find 
it and destroy it; besides, they will get into a very bad habit to thus 
begin robbing in the early spring, while the colonies are all small, 
many so weak that they can scarcely defend themselves against per- 
sistent robbers. A queenless colony is of no use whatever, and the 
sooner it is taken up the better it will be. Frequently the bees may 
be saved by uniting them with another colony, or colonies, but this is 
all that can be expected from a queenless hive, except it is a very 
strong one, and a queen can be procured for it. 

The following method of "doubling up" is given by Mr. Doolittle, 
the well known New York apiarist: "For two or three small colonies, 
make a box that will hold twelve quarts; for larger colonies, one 
that will hold at least twenty quarts. One side must be of wire cloth 
nailed on. The other side should consist of wire cloth nailed to a 
light frame so it can be easily removed. A funnel is put into a hole 
in the top of the box. Blow a little smoke into the first hive and 
pound on the top with the fist, then treat in like manner the others 
in succession. In five minutes from pounding the first hive, the bees 
will be filled with honey. Shake the bees into the funnel, caging the 
queen when found. A cloth in the funnel when not in use keeps the 
bees in. Bump the box down so as to shake the bees on the bottom, 
remove the funnel and cover ihe hole. Mix the bees thoroughly by 
shaking and tumbling the box. Bump it down again and drop into 
the hole a caged queen, having the cage suspended by a wire hooked 
over the top of the outside box. Have candy enough in the case." 

Water and Food. — Bees consume large quantities of water during 
the spring when they are breeding. When they can gather nectar 
from flowers they usually get enough water, but when honey is not 
coming in, they make a rush for the water. It is very necessary that 
they have access to convenient places, and if these are not naturally 
convenient they should be furnished. It is best that they should 



BEES, HONEY ANN WAX SS'J 

have them near during the spring months, when the weather is a 
little cool and the wind strong, as it is very difficult for bees to rly 
very far when they are chilled. 

Ordinary open vessels will not answer for watering bees, as they 
are thus drowned in large numbers. Floating sticks or straws on the 
water may save them, but it is best to make something that will 
better accommodate them. A leaky barrel, kept filled with water as 
it leaks out and covered over, will answer nicely. Any tight barrel 
may be used by making a number of small holes in it sufficient to 
allow the water to slowly come to the outside. Bees are quite fond 
of salt, and an old salt barrel will hold water after being soaked up, 
and still leak enough to supply them. A tin containing brackish 
water is sometimes provided. This fondness for salt is often illus- 
trated by the eager way in which they collect on a spot of ground 
upon which liquor from corned beef has been thrown. 

Where bees are kept to any extent they frequently become very 
troublesome about watering tanks used to water stock, and not only 
drive the stock away, but they are themselves drowned in large 
numbers. In such a case a watering place may be fixed up for them 
near the apiary, and thus avoid the trouble referred to. When once 
they take up with a certain watering place, it is hard to get them 
from it; it is best then to cover the tanks so closely that it will be 
impossible for them to get into the water, and in a short time they 
will take up with the new watering place. 

Bees are most fond of those places where their favorite flower is 
to be found; therefore bee-keepers should encourage the growth of 
such shrubs and flowers as are known to supply honey and wax in the 
greatest abundance. In most cases bees do not fly far for food, 
generally not more than half a mile, and they may be observed to 
return with great haste to the hive when a storm approaches. The 
following are the most favorable for pasturage, and those which 
blossom early are the most desirable. The shrubs and trees are gray 
willow, tulip, poplar, persimmon, gooseberry, raspberry, apricot and 
all other fruit trees, American linden, locust, broom and alder; the 
flowers are mignonette, lemon thyme, garden and wild thyme, buck- 
wheat, winter savory, hyssop, and mustard, turnips, cabbage and white 
clover, when left to seed, and scarlet and other beans. 

Mignonette, borage, and lemon thyme are among the best, as they 



S6o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

continue very long in bloom and yield fine honey. Rosemary is a 
great favorite, but seldom supplies much honey in this country, 
unless the weather proves very hot and dry, when it is in blossom. 
Fields of beans, white clover and buckwheat are also of value as 
honey producers. 

WINTERING OF BEES 

When it comes to the care of bees in winter, special and elaborate 
instructions are required as to proper feeding and protection. Some 
apiarists hive their bees in warm, dry cellars in winter, but this 
method is considered more difficult and require far more personal 
attention than out-of-door wintering. In the spring bees wintered in 
cellars are especially hard to manage, as they become uneasy after 
such long confinement. One is very much tempted to set them out 
when fine weather makes its appearance, and this mistake is fre- 
quently made, resulting in great damage to the bees and often in 
heavy losses. If bees become very much aroused in the cellar during 
early spring, and before the weather has become settled, it is better, 
if we are compelled to put them out, to allow them to get a good fly, 
and then return them for the time being. It is true that this is con- 
siderable extra labor, especially if we have a large number of colonies, 
but it will pay in the end. 

The following has been suggested as a good way to proceed: "As 
soon as it is settled cold weather, say -about the first of November, 
place the bees in a dark, quiet cellar that will keep vegetables well, 
and maintain an even temperature of 45°. Of course the bees should 
have plenty of honey to eat and twenty-five pounds will be none too 
much to last them until they can gather a supply in the spring. To 
prepare them for the cellar, remove everything about the frames and 
put three or four sticks, one-half an inch square and nearly as long as 
the hive is wide inside, crosswise on the frames, and put on a new 
honey quilt. This will give the needed ventilation, retain the heat 
and give the bees a chance to move over the frames. This should be 
done before cold weather, so that when it is time to put the bees in 
winter quarters all that it will be necessary to do will be to remove 
the cap and carefully place the colony in the cellar." 

In considering the question of out-door wintering, which is far the 
more common method, an experienced culturist insists that the bees 




iMWKTKl I t'K ACK AMI ffKMKIl 



From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse—United Slates Department of Agriculture 

QUARTER-CRACK AND REMEDIES. 

Cracks in the hoof are usually the result of brittleness from old age, or alter- 
nate changes from damp to dry surroundings. When they are in the front of 
the hoof they are called toe-cracks; when on the side, quarter-cracks. Above is 
illustrated their appearance, with the tools, clamps and nails used to repair these 
defects. 




From Special Report on /'lis. 



. of the Hoi se— United Slates Department of Agr 

SPRAINS OF THE LOINS. 



Sometimes from violent exertion, or a severe fall, a horse will sprain the muscles 
about the back and loins. Besides medical treatment, absolute rest is necessary to 
regain his usefulness. One of the best ways to effect this latter is to place the animal 
in a sling as illustrated above. 



BEES, HONEY AND WAX 561 

should not be moved to a new locality at the approach of winter, 
except they are taken a mile or more away. When moved long 
distances, they mark the new location, and no loss is the result; but 
when taken to an immediate vicinity, they will return in large 
numbers to their old locality and thus endanger the welfare of the 
colony. Just at the approach of winter is the most dangerous time, 
because then the colony is weak enough at best. 

In choosing a winter location another mistake is often made by 
the selection of the south side of a building. But the south, or sunny 
side, proves a snare to the bees. They warm up readily and fly out 
on days that are too cold for them, and the result is that many are 
not able to return. Bees in such a place will consume more honey 
and will not winter so well. 

A. H. Duff, of Larned, Kansas, has made a close study of bee 
culture and we are indebted to him for much which follows regarding 
the proper way of feeding bees in order that they shall lay up suffi- 
cient winter food. He says that the two principal causes of loss in 
winter are weak colonies and lack of food. Either one may be 
remedied in the fall if taken in time. Weak colonies may be made to 
breed up strong in the fall if fed early, or they may be united until 
strong ones are made. Of the two plans feeding is the best, if the 
colony fed is not so weak that it will be an impossibility to make it 
gain enough strength. 

The cause of so many weak colonies in autumn usually is due to 
late swarming or dividing, and if we would make it a rule to allow no 
swarms later than the middle of June in a good honey season, or 
earlier if the season is not good, we would have but few weak swarms 
to contend with in autumn. The food for a colony in winter, and the 
position it occupies in the hive, is the most important thing of course. 

During the honey season when the bees are breeding their best, 
there is but little honey retained in the brood chamber, if surplus 
boxes are on the hive, and the result is that at the end of the honey 
season but little honey will be found in the brood chamber of the 
hive, if there has been plenty of room given for the surplus. What 
honey is found below is stored in the outside combs, and the bees are 
left with a large brood chamber empty, and if no good honey flows 
occur in the after part of the season, to enable them to fill up their 
combs after the surplus honey is removed, they thus go into winter 



562 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

with too much empty comb capacity, with a cold brood nest, and 
their honey too far from the bees, as they cluster up into small space 
in cold weather. A good late flow of honey, or feeding with the 
surplus boxes off, until the combs are full of honey about the bees, is 
the proper way to have them. 

The sugar is prepared in different ways for feeding, but the best 
method of using it is to heat it after adding water. The amount of 
water added is of some importance, especially when feeding for 
winter stores a little late in autumn. The more water added, and 
the thinner the sirup, the more work is required by the bees to 
evaporate the surplus water. Hence the stores are more readily 
ripened, and the bees will seal up the combs much sooner, if given 
them with less water. We can have it too thick, with too much body 
for the bees to work it well, as well as too thin. 

It is a pretty good plan, when feeding for winter, to add water in 
about the same amount of bulk as that of sugar. This will give it 
about the proper consistency after it is well melted on the fire. The 
sirup should not be boiled, but may be brought to the boiling point, 
and then removed from the fire. The sirup may be fed warm, but 
not hot, or it may be cold. If the weather is a little cool, it is better 
to give the sirup warm, otherwise it makes no difference. 

Feed bees only in the evening, and as late as possible to see to do 
the work. When many colonies are together, or in the immediate 
neighborhood, if fed during the daytime it will cause great excite- 
ment among the bees and frequently incites robbing. If fed late in 
the evening, the bees do the work of storing in the night-time as well, 
and everything will be quiet in the morning. Wooden troughs are 
best to feed from, and these should be supplied with floats of sticks 
or shavings to keep the bees from drowning. Use an upper story on 
this hive to keep the feeders in, and feed only in this way. 

Every colony should have twenty-five or thirty pounds of sealed 
stores in the hive, and should be protected in some way, and not left 
sitting out in the ordinary summer hives. Bees that are compelled 
to battle with the storms of winter in thin, unprotected hives, will 
consume much more honey than those protected. The additional 
amount of stores consumed will pay for the extra protection. 
Packing straw about the hives, or setting corn-stalks about them, is 
not of much account, except as a sort of windbreak, but if we are to 



BEES, HONEY AND WAX 563 

winter them out-of-doors, we should provide a chaff hive, or large 
box, made fairly tight, with good cover, one that will not leak. A 
hive thoroughly packed in such a box, with good dry chaff to the 
thickness of four or six inches, with a roof that will keep the same 
dry, may be considered in reasonable shape to winter well. The 
entrance to the bees must be cut out through the outside box, so 
that the bees may go out any time the weather is suitable. Large 
dry goods boxes answer the purpose very well, and need but little 
preparation other than making a good roof. A good windbreak is 
of much importance also, besides the chaff hive protection, and may 
be made in any way or of any material at hand. The place that bees 
occupy should be separated by a substantial fence from all other 
places, that stock may be kept entirely from them in winter. 

Spring Dwindling is one of the greatest drawbacks to bee-keeping, 
and is caused generally by the bees having an insufficient supply of 
honey and bee bread, which causes them to push out after pollen 
whenever the sun shines, regardless of the cold winds, and so many 
are chilled and never return that the colony becomes so reduced that 
it gives up trying, and either joins another colony or dwindles away 
entirely. The month of April is perhaps the most critical time in the 
whole year. But if a colony has sufficient store to keep them rearing 
brood till the 10th of May they will generally be able to take care of 
themselves. 

About the first thing to look after when the bees are placed on 
the summer stands, and protected to some extent from cold winds, is 
to find if each colony has a good queen. Another is to see if they 
have plenty of stores, for in the time of brood rearing they require a 
good supply, and it disappears rapidly where there is little or nothing 
coming in. 



THE QUEEN BEE AND HER BROOD 

A queen bee is certainly a very important factor in the hive. 
Without a queen a colony of bees are absolutely worthless. No 
other bee in the whole colony can take the place of the queen, and 
no house of lords can run business in her absence as it runs with her 
present. In the absence of the queen, some of the worker bees will 
assume the duty of laying eggs, but strange to say these eggs will 



564 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

hatch to drone bees only, and a poor quality of drones into the 
bargain. 

When the young queen is a few days old, she becomes fertilized 
by the drone or male bee. This takes place out of the hive, in the 
open air, when both are on the wing. If you should confine a young 
queen, even with a hive full of drones, she would not become 
fertilized. -Some young queens have defective wings and cannot fly, 
and in"every case these are worthless. During the most busy part of 
the season, the queen is said to lay as many as 3,000 eggs a day. 
While the average life of the worker bee is about forty days, the 
queen will live two or three years, and queens have been known to 
live as long as five years. She becomes fertilized but once, and ever 
after produces the same stock. Strange to say, while she may live 
to see millions of offspring, the drone, or male bee, dies at once. 
Queens are more profitable the first year of their life, as a general 
thing, and after that are not so prolific, and more inclined to swarm- 
ing. The queen 'produces two kinds of eggs, a fertile egg, and an 
infertile egg. The former hatch out worker bees, and the latter 
drones. 

This would seem a little strange, to say that an infertile egg will 
hatch anything, yet it is true in the case with bees, and it may easily 
be proven. For instance a young queen that cannot become fertilized, 
owing to her bad wings, will begin to lay eggs usually, and every egg 
she lays will hatch to drones. This frequently occurs. With very 
rare exceptions, two queens cannot occupy the same hive, but 
proceed to battle on first sight. 

Every colony should have a good fertile queen, and it is of 
importance that she should be of the present season's rearing. Many 
young queens are lost on their fertilization trip. Supposing the 
fertilized queen to have safely returned, however, it is best to at once 
clip her wing, so that she can never fly again. An experienced 
bee-keeper says that he clips about one-third of one wing off. He 
uses a pair of pocket scissors for this purpose, and the operation does 
not seem to cause any pain at all. Great care should be taken in 
handling the queen, as if she is injured the bees will kill her. 

The location of the brood nest is also of much importance, and if 
it is found at the side of the hive it should be removed to the center, 
and care must be exercised to keep the brood in a compact form and 



BEES, HONEY AND WAX 565 

not allowed to scatter to different places in the hives, for the bees 
cannot thus take care of it, and it must be lost. 

The food for the young bees consists of pollen, honey and water, 
which has been digested in the bodies of workers and resembles a 
thick cream. Dust of finely ground grain is a substitute for pollen 
and the bees will gather it in their pollen baskets with as much 
earnestness as the regular pollen from flowers. 

Foul Brood.— The cause of the foul brood, or the death and putre- 
faction of the bee larvae, was for some time unknown. It has been 
ascertained to be a bacterium, or fungus, called scientifically bacillus 
alvei. It is so small that millions of it may be found in a bee larva 
less than a half inch long. Under the microscope it looks like a bit 
of grayish thread with a few hairs on each extremity. By mean.s of 
these hairs it moves itself. It multiplies by dividing. When it is 
developed it breaks in two, and each half goes into business as a 
separate concern. In two or three hours it is ready to divide 
again. 

In twenty-four hours a bacillus alvei will divide from eight to 
twelve times. In eight divisions it will produce 2,048 bacilli. A bee 
larvae three-eighths of an inch long may contain 2,000,000 bacilli. In 
twenty-four hours with twelve divisions, 2,000,000 would produce a 
number simply beyond comprehension. This enormous reproductive 
power is what makes foul-brood a pest so formidable. Besides multi- 
plying directly by division, the bacillus also gives off spores, or 
seeds, which are so small that even the most powerful micro- 
scope can hardly reveal them. Theses pores float on the air and 
may be deposited by the wind or by other insects in colonies of 
bees. 

Experimenters give various methods of fighting this pest. Car- 
bolic acid, salicylic acid and phenol when brought in contact with the 
bacilli, will kill them at once; but the employment is laborious and 
dangerous, and it is considered the safest and best to burn all the 
combs of badly affected colonies with all the brood and honey they 
may contain; then subject the bees to a starvation cure, after which 
they may be allowed to build up in a renovated or new hive. To 
facilitate this work the frames of the hives may be filled with comb- 
formation, and the colonies may be fed for awhile with medicated 
sirup. 



566 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

THE HONEY AND WAX 

Honey is the only sweet that is absorbed by the blood without 
fermentation. It is therefore much more healthful than sirups and 
candies, being, in fact, often used as a medicine and an aid to 
digestion. Honey is placed upon the market in two forms — either in 
the comb or out of it, the latter being known as extracted honey. 
A few suggestions are therefore made as to the harvesting and 
preparation of both the comb and extracted honey, as well as the 
best ways of extracting beeswax. 

Honey. — It is natural for bees to swarm without storing any great 
quantity of surplus honey, so that we must control swarming, if we 
wish to secure large crops. The best way to do this is to keep the 
colony well supplied at all times during the honey season with surplus 
storage room. It is when they become crowded that they take a 
notion to swarm. 

Along about the closing of the honey harvest, which usually 
occurs about the first to the middle of July, the bees should get par- 
ticular attention as to the condition they are in. The surplus honey, 
that is, all that is completed, should be removed. It is a mistake to 
leave surplus honey on the hives after it is ready to come off. It will 
not only crowd the bees, but if it is left until autumn it will be 
colored, and for market will be spoiled for the best prices. The clear 
white surface of the comb will become yellow and what is called 
"travel stained" by the bees. The surplus may be reduced at this 
season of the year, but should not be entirely removed, for later we 
may have a flow of honey so that considerable may be stored in the 
surplus boxes. A successful producer of comb honey thus lays down 
directions as to removing the product during the honey flow: "Have 
your hives such that you can keep piling up supers as long as the bees 
will work in the top one. Remove the bottom one as soon as most 
of the sections are full. Put the unfinished sections in a super by 
themselves, and when the super is full put it out on a hive to be 
finished. Do not leave the finished sections any longer than is abso- 
lutely necessary, as the bees in traveling over them soil the comb and 
lower the selling qualities of the honey. 

"Cleaning the sections before casing is quite important, and is 
very tedious. Every particle of dirt and propolis should be scraped 



BEES, HONEY AND WAX 567 

off. Never try to wash them. About the only way to better the 
appearance of the comb is to sulphur and bleach in a strong light." 

It is better to market comb honey as soon as possible after it is 
taken from the hive, if prices are satisfactory, for it is somewhat 
difficult to keep in a perfect condition for very long, unless it receives 
special care. Honey of all kinds should be kept from dampness, and 
the ordinary cellar is no place for honey. It may be kept perfectly 
in any dry room above ground, for the heat will not damage it, but 
rather help to more thoroughly ripen it. This applies to both comb 
and extracted honey, and of the two the extracted will bear less 
dampness. 

It is no doubt a fact that extracted honey is most profitable for a 
large majority of the bee-keepers of the country because they are in a 
measure at the mercy of dealers who will not pay the price that extra 
fine comb honey is worth, being obliged to pay a nearly level price 
for all that comes to them, because they have neither time nor 
inclination to seek a market for the best, preferring to sell in lump 
lots. For the bee-keeper who is near a large town or city there is a 
place to dispose of extra white comb honey at a price that will make 
it an object to sell in sections. 

The ordinary sections contain about fourteen ounces of honey, 
worth, when extracted, not more than seven cents. If the comb is 
nice and white and the sections neatly filled they may be sold for 
anywhere from twenty to thirty cents a section. Wherever there are 
people who can afford to indulge their taste for the best and finest 
looking products for their table, there will be found a market for all 
the first-class honey comb that is offered at a price that will make 
extracting a losing operation. When comb honey must be sold for 
ten cents a pound and extracted brings seven or eight cents, the 
bee-keeper cannot afford to sell the comb, as it costs too much time 
to make it, every pound of comb taking as much time to make as ten 
pounds of honey. 

If extracted honey is to be put up in small packages, such as pints, 
quarts, or gallons, it is best to pack it thus early and before it begins 
to granulate, which occurs in the autumn months. If extracted honey 
has been taken from the combs a little early, and before it is 
thoroughly ripened, it should be left in open packages until well- 
ripened, after which it may be sealed up tight. There is nothing 



568 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

gained in sealing up air-tight, well-ripened honey, more than to 
protect it from dirt, for it will keep any length of time in open vessels 
if kept away from dampness and well ventilated. 

A good way of clarifying honey is to dissolve it in water, adding 
to every twenty-eight pounds of honey one and one-half pounds of 
animal charcoal. Gently simmer for fifteen minutes, add a little 
chalk to saturate excess of acid, if required; strain or clarify, and 
evaporate. Honey acquires a darker color if heated in copper or 
iron vessels; the above process should therefore be conducted in 
earthen or well-tinned copper pans. 

As honey is frequently adulterated it is well to know how to detect 
the artificial from the real article. Molasses may be detected by the 
color and odor, and potato-sugar sirup by boiling the samples in 
water containing about two per cent, of caustic potassa. If the liquid 
remains colorless it is pure, but if it turns brown it is adulterated with 
the sirup mentioned. Should starch be used, cold water will bring 
out a cloudy appearance and iodine a blue color. When it contains 
wheat flour it is first liquified by heat and, upon being cooled, 
becomes solid and tough. 

Artificial honey is sometimes made as follows: Take ten pounds 
of Havana sugar, four pounds water, forty grains of cream of tartar, 
ten drops essence of peppermint, and three pounds of honey; first 
dissolve the sugar in the water over a slow fire, and take off the scum. 
Then dissolve the cream of tartar in a little warm water, and add, 
with some stirring; add the honey, heated to a boiling point, and the 
essence of peppermint; stir for a few moments, and let it stand until 
cold, when it will be ready for use. 

Beeswax is obtained by melting the comb in water after the 
honey has been removed, straining the liquid mass, remelting the 
solid portion, and casting into cakes. 

A method of preparing wax for polishing floors is as follows: 
Twelve and one-half pounds yellow wax rasped, and stirred into a 
hot solution of six pounds pearl-ash in rain water. Keep the mixture 
well stirred while boiling. It soon commences to froth, and when 
this ceases, the heat is stopped. Then add to the mixture, while still 
stirring, six pounds dry yellow ochre. It may then be poured into 
tin cans or boxes, and hardens on cooling. 



CHAPTER XXV 
PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 

Physical Culture of Man, Woman and Child— Exercises to Develop Special 
Muscles — Daily Drill for the Women and Children — Masculine Exercises 
— Social Forms and Etiquette — Street Etiquette for Women — Proper 
Dress and Deportment — Visiting Etiquette and the Use of Calling 
Cards — Home Etiquette and Table Manners — Full Dress and Party 
Etiquette — Accepted Forms and Rules for the Christening, the Wedding 
and the Funeral — Conversation and Social Correspondence — Official 
Form of Address. 

To all those who object to the word "training" as applied to social 
life, we will say that in order to put yourself and others at ease and 
to oil the wheels of individual progress, a certain training in the 
etiquette generally accepted as standard is absolutely necessary. This 
may be obtained by experience, often of the most humiliating kind, 
or by the study and application of the rules of conduct laid down by 
ladies and gentlemen the world over. In either case, training is 
necessary, and it ought not to be a question which course in the 
securing of it is the easier or more sensible to follow. With the 
training comes the "culture," which is the word usually applied to 
physical and social education. 

Social culture largely depends on a healthful condition of the 
physical nature and a graceful, pleasing and self-contained bearing. 
A sound physical condition, as well as a healthful mind, is largely at 
the foundation of good manners. 

PHYSICAL CULTURE OF MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD 

In all ages and countries physical culture, in various forms, has 
occupied a large share of royal, public and individual attention. First 
and foremost were the Greeks with their Olympian games, revived 
within late years. To be a victor in the Olympian games was to be 
little short of the god Zeus, whom they celebrated. He was crowned 
with much ceremony, exempt from taxation and otherwise signally 
honored. After the Greeks came the opulent Romans who built 
magnificent baths, gymnasiums and amphitheaters. But in their 
times the baths were chiefly for the rich, and the athletics for the pro- 

569 



57 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

fessionals, the physical culture of the masses being largely neglected. 
The Romans were therefore crushed by the northern barbarians, 
whose bodies were vigorous with the exercise of the chase or war 
and the freshness and rigors of outdoor life. During the middle ages, 
when the common people were as warlike as the nobility and the 
twang of the bow string and the rush of the battle axe were every- 
where, the discipline of the human body became a matter as much of 
self-preservation as of glory. Physical culture had taken another 
form. 

In modern times the fortunes of war do not depend upon bodily 
strength, and purely physical prowess is not esteemed higher than 
brutish. Physical culture is now held to be of account only as it 
proves an aid to higher growth and achievement. In our days, 
therefore, it goes hand in hand with education. Public school, 
college and university each places athletics within reach of its 
scholars and, in fact, encourages a moderate amount and degree of 
exercise as being conducive to intellectual vigor. Those nations, 
also, which have best studied physical culture as a public necessity, 
such as America, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden, show the 
most energetic characteristics as peoples. 

Modern forms of physical culture are chiefly directed to the 
problem of doing the greatest good to the greatest number; the 
chief feature of modern physical culture is its democratic character. 
Thousands, yes millions, of men, women, and children, throughout 
the world, are indulging in various forms of it — boating, yachting, 
swimming, skating, football, baseball, golf, tennis, and in-door gym- 
nastics either directly under instructors, or under their guidance 
through correspondence. Others are methodically following instruc- 
tions, as published in standard works on the subject. The literature 
upon the subject is so full that physical development may be culti- 
vated in countless ways and is open to men, women and children of 
all ages. The simplest and most feasible way of obtaining the 
physical exercise necessary to the most complete usefulness in active 
and practical life is to adopt some form of culture in which apparatus 
is not necessary. Fortunately many courses in this special form of 
physical culture have been formulated and from them we select a few 
of the simplest exercises. 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 571 

PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN 

The following daily drill is recommended by a high authority as 
the best for the symmetrical development of women and children; 
by symmetrical, meaning the development of both grace and 
strength. The general position to assume is heels together, toes 
turned out, body stiffly erect and slightly inclined forward, abdomen 
held well back, chest out, arms at side, shoulders back, head erect, 
with chin slightly in, and weight upon the balls of the feet. 

Exercises for Neck and Throat Muscles. 

1. Without changing position, incline the head until it rests on 
the chest, then raise with deep inspiration and lower with expiration, 
five times. 

2. Bend head to right shoulder, as far as possible, slowly inhale 
as head comes up, and exhale as head goes over to left. Raise the 
head with the inhalation and bend over to the right with the exhala- 
tion. Repeat five times. 

3. Turn head as far as possible to the right, then turn forward 
with inhalation and turn on to left with exhalation. Repeat five 
times. 

4. Bend head forward until chin rests on breast as at first, roll 
the head with deep inspiration toward the right until the head is bent 
as far back as possible, then exhale as the head is rolled on around 
the left to the front position. Repeat this five times. 

Exercises for Shoulder, Back and Chest Muscles. 

1. Shrug shoulders together, up and down, five times. 

2. Shrug each shoulder separately, five times. 

3. Shrug shoulders up, back, down and forward with a rolling 
motion, five times; roll each shoulder alternately. 

4. Place clenched hands upon chest, strike both straight out, five 
times; then strike out singly and again together. 

5. Go through with the same movements from the side. 

6. Same movements upward. 

7. Same movements downward. 

8. Flex arms; that is, hold the arms straight out, palms up. 
Bend arm at elbow with muscles in tension, together, singly, alter- 
nately and together, each five times. 

9. With arms straight out, bend wrists up and down, right and 



57- 



PRACTICAL RECIPES 



left, in rotary motion, five times together, singly, alternately and 
together. 

10. Clench fists; that is, open and close hands together, singly, 
alternately and together, five times each. 

ii. Swing arms around the shoulder together, singly, alternately 
and together five times. 

Exercises for Waist and Abdominal Muscles. 

i. Place hands on hips, thumbs back, bend body at waist line, not 
below it, as far as possible backward; inhale as body is brought to 
erect position and exhale as body is bent as far as possible forward. 
Repeat five times. 

2. Bend body to the right as far as possible, inhale as it is 
brought erect and exhale as it is bent as far as possible to the left. 
Repeat five times. 

3. Bend body forward as far as possible at the waist line, rotating 
toward the right. Repeat five times. 

4. Rather a more violent exercise to especially strengthen the 
abdominal muscles consists of lying flat upon the floor with arms at 
side but slightly raised; fingers, arms and legs rigid, with feet 
together. Raise the legs slowly until the feet are above the waist 
line, returning them slowly to original position but not touching the 
floor. Inhale during upward movement of legs and exhale during 
downward. Repeat three times. 

Exercises for the Leg Muscles. — To develop the muscles of the legs 
no exercise is better than walking over a hilly country. If this is 
impracticable there are various indoor movements which will bring 
the same muscles into play, minus the exhilarating outdoor air and 
surroundings. 

1. Relax the body above the knees and throw the weight upon 
the heels; raise the toes as far as possible and reverse, throwing the 
weight upon the toes. Thus will be imitated the rocking motion of 
walking. 

2. Rest the weight on the right foot, raising the left leg until the 
knee is parallel with the waist line; alternate with left foot and right 
leg. Repeat fifteen times. 

3. The running movement may be obtained by planting one's self 
firmly on the floor, with left foot well advanced and clenched hands 
on a level with the chest, each hand, with the shifting of the feet, 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 573 

being brought alternately backward and forward. Repeat fifty times, 
if you do not get too much out of breath. 

General Rules. — If it is the aim to strengthen a special set of 
muscles which are defective, too much stress cannot be placed upon 
the necessity of concentrating the mind upon the parts brought into 
play. As soon as your mind gets listless your muscles will also relax 
and the exercise will not have much effect. This is not so apt to be 
the case in outdoor exercise, where one has the advantage of fresh 
air and other influences calculated to keep the brain active and the 
mind alert. 

While exercising all tight and heavy clothing should be discarded, 
and although the room should be kept cool — say about 62 — the 
avoidance of all draughts is to be enjoined. 

Rigidity of the muscles should be the rule, some recommending 
tightly clenched fingers and others half clenched. In the latter case 
it is claimed that the muscles of the hand and wrist are better 
developed. Further, while some instructors believe that in exer- 
cising the muscles above the waist the person should stand with 
his legs fully extended, others insist that the knees should be 
bent and the muscles held rigid in that position. It is claimed 
that by merely assuming the latter position not only are the 
muscles of the legs strengthened, but those of the shoulders, chest 
and back. 

The best time for indoor exercise is immediately upon arising in 
the morning, unless one is troubled with insomnia, when it should be 
taken before retiring. A warm sponge bath is good afterward, and a 
brisk rubbing is necessary. 

Deep breathing, which is a splendid exercise in itself, should 
accompany all physical training, and when possible, breathe through 
the nostrils. (See "Masculine Exercises" for special instructions in 
lung development.) 

If you do not get enough exercise in faithfully performing the 
duties of your daily life, and believe it is for your good to make a 
business of applying yourself to these forms of physical culture, carry 
them out persistently and methodically. 

The above general rules, as well as special exercises, may with 
advantage be adopted by men also, although they generally insist 
that their cases demand more heroic treatment. 



574 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

MASCULINE EXERCISES 

Those whose life is largely passed out-of-doors seldom need 
special exercises to keep them in good condition. Farm work is as 
perfect a form of exercise as could be artificially devised, because it 
is largely conducted in the open air and brings, in its various opera- 
tions, every muscle of the body into active play. These rules are 
therefore not offered to the fortunate worker upon the farm, but to 
him who has been denied his advantages in securing, without money 
and without price, a system of physical culture which meets every 
practical requirement, we offer the following. The suggested exer- 
cises are more in the nature of hints than anything which is deemed 
an approach to perfection: 

i. Place heels together, with feet at right angles; legs either 
straight or bent at the knees; head back, chest out and abdomen in. 
Take a deep breath; extend the arms, with fingers clenched, or half 
clenched; bring arms together in front of the face and back to first 
position. Repeat rapidly ten times. 

2. Following same general instructions as above, extend the 
arms above the head, with palms forward and thumbs together; 
lower arms to side in a half circle and raise slowly to first position. 
Repeat ten times. 

3. Extend left arm above the head, with right arm dropped to 
leg; bring left arm down to leg, drawing right arm up at same time; 
continue these movements rapidly ten times. When taken in succes- 
sion the above three movements are good to develop the chest, 
shoulders and back. 

4. Another good movement for the chest and shoulders is to 
place the hands together at the front of the body, bring them slowly 
to a point above the head and then, separating them, draw them 
down slowly to the shoulders, resisting all the time as much as 
possible; then raise the hands and bring them back to the original 
position. Repeat ten times. In all cases inflate the lungs as the 
arms go up, and exhale as they descend. 

5. Also for chest and shoulders: Extend the arms on a line with 
the shoulders, palms down. Bend the elbows (upper arm rigid) so 
that the hands describe a half circle forward, keeping them still on a 
level with the shoulders; bring finger tips together in front and then 
bring hands back to original position. Repeat twenty times. 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 575 

6. Edwin Checkley, well known as an instructor and writer in 
natural methods of physical training, is expecially insistent on the 
point of deep and full breathing, both as an accompaniment to exer- 
cises and as an exercise in itself. He says: "The unfortunate habit 
of abdominal breathing, as it is called, is particularly common among 
men. The use of the corset and other reasons have produced among 
women a habit of breathing with the upper part of the lungs — a habit 
that has been, to that extent, fortunate. Women breathe less air 
than men, but they breathe it in a better way." 

Mr. Checkley also shows that deep chest breathing is not only of 
the greatest benefit in the development of the lungs, but of the 
muscles of the upper part of the body, claiming that more of them 
can be brought into active and symmetrical play than by any other 
method. He therefore gives instructions for carrying out certain 
movements, combining both muscular and respiratory exercises. 

(a) For instance — place hands together in front of the body 
locking the thumbs; raise hands, keeping arms straight, and take 
deep, long breath; when arms are stretched above the head to the 
full length, slowly lower, exhaling. Repeat ten times. When shoulder 
and chest muscles are all right, the arms can be stretched over the 
head without bending the arms or unlocking the thumbs. 

(b) Place elbows on a level with the shoulders, hands on the 
same line; extend arms with hands together in front of body, as in 
the act of swimming, taking at the same time a deep breath; with 
lungs expanded bring hands around in an outer circle to point on a 
level with the shoulders, slowly exhaling while bringing them to the 
original position. Repeat ten times. 

7. Perhaps the best exercise for the development of the hands, 
arms, shoulders and back consists of throwing yourself upon the 
floor, face down and resting upon the hands and toes, with the hands 
directly under the shoulders; then lower the body so that chest and 
chin barely touch the floor; body must be rigid and lungs inflated; 
hold the breath until the body is raised to original position. A 
beginner will usually be satisfied by repeating this movement three 
or four times. 

8. Several movements may be taken for the hips, back and 
abdomen. One of these is to raise the arms directly above the head, 
palms forward; bend forward from the hips and, without bending the 



57 6 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

knees, touch the floor, and, if possible, the toes. Repeat five times. 
This movement is also considered a good chest expander. 

9. A somewhat similar exercise is to lie upon the back, with arms 
extended from the shoulders; then raise the body slowly, touch the 
toes without bending the knees, and return to original position. 

10. The reverse of this movement, which especially strengthens 
the muscles of the stomach and abdomen and is recommended for 
those suffering with indigestion, is to assume a position upon the 
back, with arms at the side, but not resting upon the floor; keep feet 
together and legs rigid, raising the legs to a point above the waist; 
then lower the legs slowly, but do not rest them on the floor. Repeat 
the movement five times. 

11. Several exercises in the development of the leg muscles have 
already been given in the drill recommended for women and children, 
which the man may apply to himself. For the development of his 
biceps and forearm several movements, already doubtless familiar to 
many, may be suggested. The most common one for the biceps is to 
clench the hands, with the palms forward, and keeping the elbows 
close to the body raise the arms to the shoulders, bending them only 
at the elbows; for the forearm, to clench the hands, with the palms 
toward the thighs, and bending the arm only at the wrist first move 
the hands, or fists, inward and upward, and then reverse the motion. 
Both movements should be taken about twenty times. 

SOCIAL FORMS AND ETIQUETTE 

True politeness is the outward expression of a delicate and con- 
siderate soul. There are a few in this world whose personalities are 
so high and strong and tender that they may conduct themselves 
before all classes of people, meet all grades of society, and never by 
their words or acts give offense. But for the most of us, however 
good at heart, a little knowledge of social etiquette is assuredly not a 
dangerous thing, and even if the majority of accepted rules are but 
an "old story," many of us will find, perhaps, by carefully reviewing 
them that we have either forgotten some of them, or carelessly 
neglected them. 

We continue the subject by offering a conundrum: 

Question — What is the Keynote of good manners? 

Answer — B Natural. 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 577 

It is presupposed, however, that the nature of the person who acts 
naturally in society is of high grade; for if his nature is boorish and 
without training in the forms of social etiquette, he will act like a 
boor. The fact therefore redounds to the good sense of the people 
generally that the study of social forms and etiquette is a serious and 
common one. 

One of the most famous books ever written along these lines — an 
old. book, long out of date, but one which is still thumbed into tatters 
— was Lord Chesterfield's "Letters to his Son." It has been edited 
and condensed dozens of times, but, although the rules of social 
conduct there laid down are practically for the benefit of young 
gentlemen, many of them are applicable to both sexes, and we shall 
have occasion to refer to them again. Be natural, then, if it is safe; 
if not, read Lord Chesterfield and other later suggestions (such as 
those which follow) on the prevailing forms and customs of good 
society. 

Street Etiquette for Women. — Certain general rules can be safely 
followed regarding proper conduct upon the street, both as to dress 
and deportment, the supposition being that neither the man nor the 
woman is about to make a formal or ceremonious call. Let us 
suppose that the man is attending to his business duties and the 
woman is about to "go shopping," or is going upon a journey. 

First, as to the woman. Neither her dress nor deportment should 
attract attention to herself from being too pronounced, or "loud." 
The materials may be rich, if the woman is matronly, and light and 
"fluffy," if she is young; but, on the street, one bright color is 
enough. 

In choosing your dress, consider first what colors will harmonize 
with your prevailing physical temperament — whether blonde or 
brunette — and, second, what style will be most appropriate to your 
form. White may be worn by women of all ages and all com- 
plexions, though if one is unusually pale some warm color should be 
worn near the face. Creamy tints, pink, browns and even tea-rose 
colors are often used with good effect. Blondes with blue eyes 
sometimes wear yellow ribbons in the hair. Very often one wishes 
to adopt that color which will form the most striking contrast, and 
brunettes are therefore partial to gold and red. 

The following appropriate suggestions were lately made by Mrs. 



57« PRACTICAL RECIPES 

T. V. Morse, of the Art Craft Institute, Chicago: "In selecting col- 
ors study the complexion. All complexions have a predominating 
color, either pink, yellow, brown or gray. You can get the prevail- 
ing color generally from the eyes or cheeks, or the hair. There is no 
complexion that cannot wear some sort of a modification of green. 
Brunettes should wear warm green. Blondes should wear cold green- 
A woman with blue eyes should not insist on wearing blue gowns. 
The color of her hair may not permit such a color. As a rule golden- 
haired blondes can wear pale pink, and if they have blue eyes pale 
green will make them look most charming. If a woman is a real 
blonde yellow should predominate. Brown shades are best adapted 
for girls with chestnut hair." 

In a street costume a neat fitting dress and cloak are the first 
things to be considered and they should be made so as to modify any 
disagreeable feature. By a neatly fitting garment we do not always 
mean one which fits closely. For instance, nothing exaggerates the 
stoutness of a short, fleshy woman so much as to wear a closely fitting 
dress or cloak, the beholder thus being able to "take her measure" as 
it were. A loosely fitting garment, with perpendicular folds or plaits, 
is best for her. For the same reason a tall thin woman should avoid 
skin-tight robes; the latter, on the other hand, should avoid perpen- 
dicular stripes or folds, as they tend to call attention to her height. 
Small, thin women should not wear too much black. Laces around 
the throat become them — in fact, anything to skillfully conceal the 
"angles." 

If one wishes to have her waist look slender and graceful the belt 
should be worn so that it slips down in front and is pushed up behind. 

As to hats, the stout woman makes a mistake by wearing a tall, 
large hat, thinking thereby to make herself look imposing. She 
should neither wear that, nor some pretty delicate trifle, only fit to 
frame a slight girlish face. On the other hand the very tall woman 
should wear neither style of hat. Study the happy medium; although 
it may be laid down as a general rule that the moderately tall, 
willowy figure best becomes the large style of hat. 

Both as a matter of precaution and taste it has become a rule of 
good society for the woman to wear little jewelry upon the street — a 
watch and brooch are sufficient. 

In the matter of veils, plain tulles and colored nets are considered 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 579 

best. The warm-blooded brunette looks well in a light-colored veil 
in which the dots are large and near together; the fair-haired, blue- 
eyed woman looks well in a large meshed, dark-colored veil. A blue 
veil gives the skin a fair, clear look and a gray veil is very unbecom- 
ing to the sallow woman. 

The style of gloves and shoes adapted for street wear is largely a 
matter of individual taste, but here again the general rule of modesty 
and serviceability applies. Upon no account, however, squeeze either 
your hand or your foot into a glove or shoe too small for you. If 
you do so, everybody you meet will know it and you will be not only 
uncomfortable, but ridiculous. The days when the doll-like hand 
and foot were at a premium are past. Cinderella especially is at a 
discount. 

As viewed in good society, which is becoming more and more to 
mean the prevailing common-sense of men and women, the trailing 
skirt upon the street is an object of both amusement and disgust; 
amusement, because the possessor of it often imagines she is making 
an impression on account of her majestic and elegant appearance, 
and disgusting, because she is in reality sweeping up the filth along 
her route and perhaps spreading disease as she moves along. The 
modern street dress should always clear the ground. 

If, in spite of this precaution, on account of snows, rains and mud, 
the garments are liable to be soiled, there is an awkward and there is 
a ladylike way of raising the skirts. They are not raised high with 
both hands, but with one hand only, just above the shoe and even all 
around. There is no one thing in which the average girl requires 
more practice than in acquiring the knack of gracefully raising her 
skirts. In this connection it is a sensible, as well as a modest practice 
to avoid the wearing of white skirts in rainy, snowy or muddy weather. 

Rainy-day etiquette requires, if you meet a gentleman friend with 
an umbrella (and you have none) and he cannot accompany you 
home, but insists that you take his umbrella, you should return it to 
him at the earliest opportunity, with a note of thanks. It is in poor 
form to accept the escort or the tender of an umbrella from a 
stranger. 

A lady is recognized upon the street by her general composure 
and grace of bearing. She neither dashes along as if on a wager, 
nor shuffles her feet. She does not swing the arms nor allow any 



580 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

undue motion of the hips. Her head is up and her parasol is held at 
such a height that she can clearly see where she is going. Her 
entire bearing is one of independent composure, without stiffness. 

If she meets an acquaintance on a crowded street, she does not 
stop in the middle of the sidewalk and obstruct the progress of all 
pedestrians, but draws her to one side. Should it be a gentleman 
and he wishes to enter into conversation, he will, if possible, walk 
along in her direction. 

In the daytime it is not considered proper for a lady to take the 
arm of a gentleman, unless he is her affianced, her husband or near 
relative. In the evening, or when the streets are slippery, it seems to 
be optional whether the lady shall take the gentleman's arm, or allow 
him to take hers. 

If a lady is with two gentlemen she should walk between them, 
and if they are acquaintances merely should endeavor to treat them 
impartially. 

When a lady meets a gentleman it is her part to speak first, 
thereby intimating that she desires to continue the acquaintance. 

If she wishes to show a disinclination to do so, she may bow, but 
show such formality in her bearing, that her meaning will be clear. 
By pursuing this course, instead of the cruel, unladylike one of 
looking the gentleman full in the face and making no sign of recog- 
nition, she will sustain her reputation for courtesy and at the same 
time make her meaning clear. 

It is polite for the lady to invite her escort to enter the house, but 
if he declines, she knows that it is not good breeding to urge him; if 
the hour is late, she will not even invite him in. 

Too much cannot be said about the proper conduct of ladies 
toward strangers. If there is an obvious intent on their part to 
attract your attention, or force their attention upon you, there can be 
but one course to follow — coldly ignore them. If you show temper, 
or indignation, you draw public attention to yourself and often give 
an unprincipled man the very chance he sought, to continue his con- 
versation with you. 

There are many instances, however, where the acts are those of 
true courtesy and delicate consideration. Some girls make the 
mistake of ignoring such courtesies and thereby throw themselves 
open to the charge of unladylike conduct, 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL CULTURE 581 

For instance, if a stranger offers you his hand in alighting from a 
car, or omnibus, or offers to assist you in crossing a muddy street, 
there is nothing presumptuous in the act itself. A lady will readily 
gauge the motive, by the manner of offering assistance, and if she is 
convinced that it is purely an act of courtesy should gracefully 
acknowledge it as such. Of course in large cities where there are 
policemen at the most frequented crossings to act as official escorts, 
the latter is now a rare case to be considered. 

Street car etiquette is much discussed, but the rule seems quite 
well settled that as it is impossible that all ladies shall have seats, the 
preference should be given not to sex, but to age, obvious infirmity of 
any kind, and women with small children. In the street cars the 
man and woman of average health and strength are on the same 
plane; but if for any cause a gentleman gives his seat to a lady, she 
should never accept it without a bow or a word of thanks. 

It is not unusual for one who would wish to be considered a lady 
to refuse a seat, with an injured toss of the head and a "Oh, I can 
stand!" especially if, for some reason, she has been standing for 
quite a while. This certainly is not good manners. 

Where two ladies are together and only one seat is vacated, 
several things should determine who should occupy it. Age or 
infirmity should again be taken into consideration, if the ladies have 
simply met, and the fact as to whether they hold the position toward 
each other of guest and hostess. Common sense would dictate in 
the latter case that the hostess should insist upon her guest taking 
the seat. 

Doubtless other points in street etiquette will come before the 
lady, as the result of thought or experience; but eventually they will 
all be decided, if rightly decided, by the rule of consideration tor the 
comfort and feelings of others. 

Street Etiquette for Men. — There are certain rules of street etiquette 
which the true gentleman instinctively follows, but which cannot be 
too often repeated. 

The true gentleman never stares at passers-by, or, if he is with an 
acquaintance, makes remarks about them in an audible tone of voice. 

If he meets a couple walking together, the lady only being an 
acquaintance, he does not detain them, or even join them, unless 
invited to do so by the lady; he simply bows and passes on. 



582 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

The gentleman, when walking with the lady, always requests to 
carry any parcels which she may have, especially if it is raining or 
snowing. He holds the umbrella over her and otherwise makes it 
easy for her to protect her garments. 

It is no longer considered a binding rule that the gentleman 
should take the outside of the walk. In fact, in crowded thorough- 
fares, where there are many turnings, it is often quite ridiculous to 
see an escort continually dodging behind the lady, now to this side 
and now to that, in order to conform to this old rule. The custom 
originated in the idea that in case of danger it would be easier to 
protect the lady with the right arm free. 

When accompanying a lady on the street, while he should be 
attentive to outside matters which will insure her comfort and safety, 
he should not be continually gazing at others and withdrawing the 
bulk of his attention from her. In this regard street etiquette is the 
same as ball-room etiquette. 

Concerning the street attire of the gentleman, it depends, as in 
the case of the lady, upon the occupation and special errand. The 
business man does not dress as the physician, whose time is largely 
spent with the family, nor does the physician, as a rule, attire himself 
like the lawyer. The business man upon the street seldom wears 
gloves in mild weather unless he is about to make a formal call. As 
a rule he is attired in a single or double-breasted sack, or three- 
button cutaway, with striped or checked trousers to match, or some- 
what lighter. He wears a derby or fedora; colored or white shirt; 
standing, or high turn-down collar, with a neutral colored tie; 
jewelry largely a matter of taste and financial condition. 

An invariable custom in good society, which is of comparatively 
recent origin, is for the gentleman to bow, whether he is with a lady 
and meets one of her acquaintances, or is with another gentleman 
and meets a lady with whom his friend only is acquainted. 



VISITING ETIQUETTE 

The suggestions here made are for the benefit of the visitor, not 
the hostess — the latter portion of the subject will be considered under 
the head of the Art of Receiving and Entertaining. For the proper 
conduct of the visitor, the same general rules apply to both lady and 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 583 

gentleman. Supposing that they have stood the test of the rules 
applying to Street Etiquette, a short call, or a visit is now in order. 

Etiquette for Short Visit, or a Call. — Morning calls may be made at 
any time between noon and six o'clock P.M., although in small places 
and with people of moderate circumstances, it is looked upon as 
more convenient for the hostess to receive callers between two and 
five in the afternoon. By conforming to these hours neither the 
noon-day nor evening meal will be interfered with. 

If it is a formal visit of any kind, it should not exceed fifteen or 
twenty minutes in length. It is customary to make such visits to one 
who has recently moved to another town, or into a new neighbor- 
hood, and is a thoughtful act of courtesy which is usually heartily 
appreciated by the stranger. 

The effect of the call, however, will be entirely spoiled if the 
visitor shows a disposition to pry into the affairs of the newcomer, or 
appears to be taking an inventory of the furniture and other house- 
hold effects. To walk around the rooms examining pictures or other 
ornaments, uninvited, or to turn over and examine visiting cards, or 
do anything else which shows bald curiosity, or a forwardness not 
warranted by intimacy, are acts which are indelicate, not to say rude. 
Conduct which is allowable with close friends may be very impolite 
with comparative strangers. Wait for your new-found acquaintance 
to make all the advances toward a closer intimacy. This is not only 
the safe way, but the polite way. 

A gracious leave-taking, after making a formal call, or a visit of 
any kind, is an art in itself. If you are a comparative stranger, when 
"your time is up," you are to politely withstand any courteous 
pressure to remain longer, and withdraw promptly, but not abruptly. 

If you are visiting a friend, perhaps an intimate one, when you are 
ready to go do not think of "something else to say," or if you do, 
defer the saying of it to another time. There are few things so 
embarrassing even between warm friends, if the truth be plainly 
spoken, as to receive a visit from one who never knows how or when 
to go. 

Evening calls should usually be made between the hours of eight 
and nine and the visit should not extend beyond ten o'clock, unless 
the caller is especially intimate. 

Sunday calls, in the afternoon and evening, are becoming quite 



584 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

common, especially in the large cities, where friends and relatives 
often live at a great distance from each other. Care should be 
taken, in making such visits, that neither head of the family objects 
to them on religious grounds; and do not make them unannounced, 
since you may thereby be interfering with plans which your friends 
have already made. 

Do not feel offended, if the subject of your call is "not at home," 
or "engaged;" for there may be a very good reason, not at all 
personal so far as you are concerned, why she cannot see you. If 
you repeatedly call, meet with the same reception and do not receive 
a note of regret, then you may decide that the acquaintanceship has 
been intentionally broken. 

No rules can be laid down as to the style of conversation to be 
introduced in making a call, or short visit. It is a good practice, 
however, to avoid heavy subjects and discussions. Touch lightly 
upon a variety of subjects and do not expand upon any one, unless 
those whom you are visiting show a desire for the details; above all, 
don't "talk shop," for if you do, you are sure to enter into the most 
tiresome of details. It is better to keep silent, even at the risk of 
being thought stupid, than to do that. 

Should callers appear while you are present and you cannot 
extend your visit longer, do not leave abruptly as if you did not wish 
to meet them. At least exchange a few pleasant words with them 
and give a reason for your departure. 

If your call is either one of congratulation or condolence do not 
delay it more than a week after the event which prompts the visit; if 
it is one of condolence and you are not on intimate terms with the 
afflicted, it is sufficient to leave a card with offers of assistance. 

There are few whose heart will not dictate the proper course to 
be pursued in a visit of condolence to a friend. 

The Use of Cards in visiting is a subject about which so much has 
been written that the average mind has been thrown into a bad state 
of confusion as to the latest rules of good society regarding it. As 
to the forms of visiting cards: 

1. The husband's name usually appears upon the card of a married 
woman; but it is bad taste to use the professional title— as Mrs. Dr. 
Jones. 

2. Widows use their maiden names. 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 585 

3. The eldest daughter of a family uses only the last name — as 
Miss Jones. 

4. Younger daughters use their first names — as Miss Alice Jones. 

5. During the first year of married life a joint card is often used. 

6. Young ladies who have just "come out" in society have their 
names on their mother's visiting card. 

7. A motherless young lady may have her name on her father's 
personal visiting card. 

8. The residence address is allowable upon the card. 

9. Gentlemen and ladies may use medical titles, and the former, 
military, naval or judicial. 

One should never start to make calls without a supply of visiting 
cards; since if the lady is not really at home the leaving of a card is 
the only sure way of showing her that you have called, and, if she 
has a special day for receiving and a number visit her, without the 
cards to remind her, she may forget just who have paid their 
respects. 

When about to leave on a protracted visit send cards to your 
friends marked P. P. C. in the left hand corner. By using the 
initials of the French phrase, pour prendre conge", you thus take leave 
of them. Also when you return, send your visiting cards, to imply 
that you wish to continue the acquaintance. When changing your 
residence also send out cards giving your new address. 

A card stands for the person, and sending a card with an invita- 
tion to an entertainment is equivalent to an invitation in person. A 
card should be sent in return and if the person cannot attend the 
entertainment she should still consider that she "owes a call" to the 
person who invited her. In case the invitation is to an afternoon 
tea, however, this call is not due. 

It is customary now to send cards of congratulation to the parents 
of engaged couples, if the parents have formally announced the 
betrothal. Birth cards are also sent to friends, as soon as the new 
arrival has received a name. 

The following instructions as to the leaving of cards may save 
confusion and perplexity: A gentleman leaves cards for host and 
hostess and a lady for the ladies of the house. If there are sons in 
the family, the visiting lady may leave her husband's card for them. 
If no one is at home, the lady leaves her card and the gentleman two. 



586 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Young gentlemen leave cards for all the ladies of the household, as 
well as for the mother, or chaperon. 

First calls should always be returned in person, if the health will 
permit. To return one of these by the sending of a card is not con- 
sidered polite. 

Cards sent by messenger are placed in a single envelope, 
unsealed. If sent by mail the unsealed envelope is enclosed in the 
sealed. 

In the matter of sending cards by messenger or mail, it is 
customary "to do as you are done by." 

HOME ETIQUETTE 

Home manners are the final test of the true lady or gentleman. 
At home, where everybody is apt to feel unrestrained, there should, 
nevertheless, be the restraint which true politeness places upon 
conduct calculated to touch the sensibility of any member of the 
family. It is here, too, when the individual is not upon parade, that 
he shows his true colors; here you may learn whether the customary 
politeness of the young lady or gentleman springs from a really good 
heart, or whether it is assumed as a shield to a really hard and coarse 
nature. It is the home that cultivates future happiness or misery in 
those who are to be the husbands and wives of the coming years. It 
is here that the individual either allows himself to criticise and to 
"nag" because of necessary personal peculiarities, or to learn the 
secret of compromise, of self-sacrifice in the interest of family peace 
and of charity for those who are bound to him by the sacred ties of 
blood and close association. 

There is not a family living, the members of which have not indi- 
vidual peculiarities — dislikes, it maybe, some of which are reasonable 
and some simply neither to be explained nor argued away. The 
nerves of one may be put on edge by the biting of worsted. Another 
may dislike the crunching of hard toast or an apple. To some cats 
may be worse than snakes. Such physical dislikes as these are 
inborn, and home etiquette demands that when they are pronounced, 
each member of the family, instead of laughing at them, should 
courteously endeavor to avoid giving pain. 

Respect of children toward their elders and the courteous treat- 
ment of children by their elders cannot be too often enjoined, 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 587 

It is both impolite and cowardly to gossip, or speak evil of any 
one in the privacy of the family circle. This rule applies to old and 
young alike. 

There is an etiquette which husband and wife owe to each other 
in the government of their children. First, as they naturally instruct 
their children to avoid quarrels, they should never dispute with each 
other before the younger members of the family. 

If either has given positive instruction to a child, and the other 
does not approve of it, there should be no argument before the 
family. Such differences of opinion should be settled in strict 
privacy. That is not only true marital courtesy, but it is better for 
the child. 

Neither husband nor wife should expect cleanliness, or pleasing 
manners in their children, if they do not personally set them the 
proper example. 

Promptness at meal hours is not only an act of consideration for 
those who cook the meals and do the household work, but it is a 
very important part of the code of home etiquette. 

Table Etiquette should be as closely observed at home as at a state 
dinner. Throwing aside all consideration of the duty you owe those 
with whom you are in such close contact, it is by far the safest policy 
to be polite at the family table; for if you daily forget your manners 
there, you are apt to overlook them in public. 

If you are at the head of the table, it is a waste of words to be 
informed in detail as to how you are to as carefully note the wants 
of members of the family as you would when guests are to be served. 

The advice to keep the mouth closed when eating may also be 
superfluous. 

It may be well to state, however, that several former rules of table 
etiquette have undergone a change. In former years it was a breach 
of table etiquette to take the last of anything; now it is considered 
discourteous to refuse. As soon as you are helped, it is now con- 
sidered good manners to at least commence to prepare your food; 
otherwise, if you wait until everybody is served, especially if there be 
a large number at the table, your food may become cold, which is a 
cause of disquietude to the lady of the house, whether she be your 
mother or hostess. 

It is as much a violation of table etiquette for the server to over- 



588 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

load the plate as to go to the other extreme. To overload, is to 
imply that you wish to avoid the trouble of serving again, or that the 
person you serve is a gormand. Particularly as it spoils the appetite 
of some to have their plates piled with food, this fault should be 
carefully avoided. 

The server should remember the taste and even peculiarities of 
different members of the family, as to the preparation of food. This 
is particularly necessary in regard to gravies and sauces. Nearly 
everyone has also a choice as to certain portions of the meats. This 
"remembering" is part of the delicate consideration and the regard 
for trifles which make up domestic life and which are at the basis of 
home etiquette. 

Tea, coffee and chocolate are no longer drunk from saucers and 
no well-bred person eats with the knife. 

A slice of bread should be broken before being buttered, and 
eaten in pieces. 

Never put bones or fruit stones on the table cloth, but place them 
carefully on the sides of your dishes. 

In removing bones or pits from your mouth do not use your 
fingers, but your fork or spoon. 

It is a vital part of table etiquette at home and elsewhere to 
avoid disquieting conversation, or anything which will suggest 
unpleasant pictures. Quarreling, bickering, stories of murders and 
suicides, and disgusting details of any kind, should be as studiously 
avoided at the home table as in the most general society. 

FULL DRESS AND PARTY ETIQUETTE 

The occasions when full dress is appropriate are at balls, or 
formal parties, at operas and at evening weddings. It would be 
futile to attempt to give various styles of what are known as full 
dress. As the occasions arise, when it is proper to be thus attired, 
the lady will naturally seek a dressmaker whose business it is to 
select the appropriate and becoming costume. 

The young gentleman's evening, or full dress, consists of black 
trousers, dress or swallow-tailed coat; a low-cut black or white vest; 
opera or high silk hat; white shirt, cuffs, pearl studs and links, and 
tie; pearl or white gloves; lap-front or standing collar; patent 
leather shoes or pumps. For day weddings, afternoon calls, mat- 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 5S9 

inees, teas, etc., his coat may be double-breasted, trousers striped and 
of a subdued shade, lighter than the coat, and his tie colored. 

In the matter of dress for young gentlemen and ladies the nature 
of the occasion should always be kept in mind, as it is considered 
very bad taste to appear in an elaborate costume at an informal 
gathering. In these days it will be hardly necessary to warn the 
young men against painting and powdering, as did Lord Chesterfield 
in his book of etiquette, to which we have already referred. 

Except that you should be more reserved in your manners, party 
etiquette should be no different from home etiquette. At formal 
gatherings Lord Chesterfield's advice to young gentlemen should be 
followed by both sexes. "The general rule is," he says, "to have a 
real reserve with almost everyone and a seeming reserve with almost 
no one; for it is very disagreeable to seem reserved and very 
dangerous not to be so." The same old but good authority upon 
social etiquette also observes that "modesty is a polite accomplish- 
ment and generally is an attendant upon merit; modesty, however, 
widely differs from an awkward bashfulness." 

Here, then, is the secret of good "party manners" in a nutshell: 
Be self-contained without being disagreeably reserved; be modest, 
without being awkwardly and painfully bashful. 

When you have arrived at your destination, before remaining to 
carry on any conversation with your friends proceed to the dressing- 
room. Your escort will accompany you to the door, will go to the 
gentleman's dressing-room and, having there left his own hat and 
overcoat, will return to rejoin you. 

If you have no escort you may call upon the master of the house 
to accompany you to the hostess, whom you must speak to before 
you join the guests. 

If you have an escort who is a stranger to the hostess, introduce 
him to her, after which it is her part to see that he becomes 
acquainted with any other guests whom he does not know. 

If you are alone and meet a friend in the dressing-room who has 
an escort you may enter the parlor with them to pay your compli- 
ments to the hostess; or two ladies, who are without escorts may 
enter together. 

A gentleman who escorts a lady to a party is under particular 
obligations to introduce her to strangers, escort her to the supper 



S9 o PRACTICAL RECIPES 

table, see that her dancing program is filled and attend to all her 
wants. While not monopolizing her entire time, he should keep her 
always in mind and look to her comfort and pleasure. On the other 
hand the lady is under obligations never to accept the services of 
another gentleman to do those things which her escort is, by all the 
rules of etiquette, required to do. 

Never refuse an introduction to a guest or to dance with one, as 
you thereby may justly offend the hostess. If you have any good 
reason for not wishing to form or to continue an acquaintance, you 
may regulate your conduct accordingly at some future time. 

A true lady will not only avoid familiarities toward gentlemen, 
but ladies themselves should avoid it in their conduct toward each 
other. Such exhibitions are invariably looked upon as affected, 
since it is beyond reason that, in public, caresses and other outward 
signs of affection should spring really from the heart. 

Avoid crossing the room alone, or in a hurry, as if you had lost 
your self-possession. 

If you are obliged to leave before the usual hour of departure, do 
so as quietly and privately as possible. Explain the circumstances to 
your hostess; that is sufficient. Do not take a formal departure, or 
you may induce others to think it is time to go also. 

Your escort has always the right to the first dance. 

If you are so unfortunate as to get your dancing number "mixed," 
decline to dance that number altogether, thereby avoiding all show 
of partiality. 

Do not dance unless you are perfectly familiar with the number, 
trusting to your partner to carry you through. 

There is no talent which the man or woman who wishes to be 
polite should more earnestly cultivate than that of remembering 
names. It is often a natural talent, but may be cultivated and 
acquired. At all events, it is always considered a personal compli- 
ment to have a new acquaintance remember your name and address 
you by it, and is an accomplishment which one must possess if he 
wishes to be popular in society. 

It is hardly to be supposed that the man or woman of to-day need 
be told that it is impolite to sit with the back to another person, 
without asking to be excused; to yawn, to talk loudly or to whisper 
confidentially; to point at anybody; to dispute over anything; to put 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 591 

cake in the pocket or to appear with dirty hands and finger nails. 
Yet many modern books of etiquette are largely devoted to those 
matters which ought to be decided by common sense, if one has not 
already seen them repeatedly in print. 

CHRISTENING. WEDDING AND FUNERAL ETIQUETTE 

In the life of the average individual, these are the three most 
important events — his birth, wedding and death. Society has there- 
fore devised certain forms for their proper observance. The pretty 
customs by which the attention of friends is called to the birth and 
christening of children are of somewhat late origin. 

Baby Etiquette. — In many families it is customary to introduce the 
baby to society as soon after its birth as the cards can be mailed. 
The card is to this effect: "Florence J. Brown, born March 12, 1903, 
at 1 A.M. At home, 128 Gladys Avenue." The announcement card 
is usually tied with white ribbons. 

When the card has been received female friends send notes of 
congratulation and inquiry to the mother, and the gentlemen pay 
their respects to the father. No one should call until assurances 
have been given that the mother is in condition to receive visitors. 

After a few weeks, the time depending on the health of child and 
mother, and some near relatives having accepted the office of 
godparents, preparations are made for the christening. When the 
ceremonies are to be at home, the house is adorned with flowers and 
the baptismal font is placed in the front parlor. The parents are 
stationed beside it, with the godparents, or sponsors, on either side 
of the father and mother. The infant is brought into the room, a 
hymn is sung, and after the baptism and christening, other music and 
the benediction follow. If the health of the mother will permit, a 
reception often closes the joyous occasion— joyous, often, for every- 
body but the baby, who has not yet learned the rules of self- 
restraining etiquette. 

The christening card of invitation is sent out in the names of the 
parents, mentioning the time and place where the ceremony is to 
occur and the hours of reception, if one is to be given. 

When the christening is at the church the baby is carried to the 
font by an elderly lady, or nurse, the sponsors follow and the parents 
come last. The godfather stands at the right of the infant and the 



59 2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

godmother at the left. After the ceremony the friends disperse at 
the door of the church, or, if the condition of the mother will permit, 
are invited to the house for a luncheon. 

Wedding Etiquette. — It is becoming more and more customary to 
make formal announcement of the betrothal of a couple. This is 
sometimes done by the mother of the future bride, who sends out 
cards to intimate friends, or by sending the announcement to some 
newspaper. In olden times the bans were published through the 
church. 

After the announcement of the engagement has been made, it is 
considered proper for the young lady, at least for a short time 
before her marriage, to partially withdraw from society — that is, she 
does not make ceremonious calls, or attend formal entertainments. 
It is supposed, however, that she will send cards to those to whom 
calls are due, although she is not debarred from visiting intimate 
friends. 

This is both an agreeable and sensible custom for many reasons, 
chief of which are that it enables the young lady to withdraw herself 
from curious eyes without remark, and, at the same time, to give the 
necessary attention to her wedding outfit and other arrangements. 

It is hardly necessary to give the stereotype forms of the modern 
wedding announcement, they vary so little, and any stationer has 
them in stock. The parents or guardians of the young lady make 
the announcement and extend the invitation, and if the permanent 
address of the bride has been decided upon it is well to include it 
with the wedding invitations. 

Bridal costumes are, of course, as varied as the brides themselves. 
As to the arrangements appropriate to a home wedding, it should be 
stated that the floral decorations should be simple and tasteful, 
rather than elaborate. A pretty custom is to select some such flower 
as the lily, or rose, and let it give the prevailing tone or color to the 
designs and decorations. 

The most striking features of the floral display should, of course, 
be made in the quarter of the room where the ceremony is to occur, 
and, if desired, the way thither may be marked by white ribbons held 
along either side by little girls. 

All being arranged the clergyman enters the room and stands 
facing the people. To the music of a wedding march the bridal 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 593 

couple follow and face him, with the father, or some near male 
relative, in sight of the clergyman, to give away the bride. If there 
are bridesmaids and groomsmen, the former, of course, stand beside 
the bride and the latter beside the groom. 

If the wedding is at the church everything is more elaborate and 
formal. Next to the chief parties concerned, perhaps the head 
usher and "the best man" are the most important personages. The 
former is the head executive and must see that the near relatives are 
shown to the place reserved for them nearest the bridal couple; that 
the other ushers are attentive to their duties and that the Organist 
strikes up the wedding march at the proper time. The proper form 
for the usher is to present his right arm to the lady, her gentleman 
escort following. 

The best man has particular care of the bridegroom, who, sad to 
relate, is more apt to be flustered and make blunders than the bride. 
He drives to the church with the future husband, is by his side at the 
altar as the bride approaches, sees that he safely places the ring 
upon the lady's finger and otherwise proves his "best man." 

The number of ushers, bridesmaids and groomsmen is a matter of 
individual preference, about the only set rule as to selection being 
that the bridesmaids must be younger than the bride. 

Should there be a reception after the wedding, it usually takes 
place at the home of the bride's mother, who has previously sent out 
invitations. If there is no reception at that time, the bride and 
groom send out a joint "at home" card. 

In former years unless the newly wedded couple took a bridal 
tour they were considered hardly fit for good society. Of late years, 
however, even among persons of wealth, this custom has been largely 
ignored; in fact, it is now considered "quite the thing" to pass the 
honeymoon in one's own house and, after a time, to send out "at 
home" cards to acquaintances and friends. 

Funeral Etiquette. — However self-possessed, it is not considered 
proper for one who is most intimately connected with the deceased 
to take charge of the funeral arrangements. They should be super- 
vised by a near friend, or relative, both of the deceased and the 
persons most naturally concerned, who will be assisted, and if in 
doubt, as to his duties, directed by an intelligent undertaker. 

All the members of the stricken family should be relieved of 



594 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

duties necessarily painful, or which will bring them into public notice. 

It is customary in some sections of the country and by certain 
classes of people, especially when the deceased is widely known, to 
send formal invitations to the funeral that the house where the 
services are to occur may not be overcrowded. 

Where such invitations are sent the one who superintends the 
funeral arrangements is furnished with a list of the names and is 
careful to engage a sufficient number of carriages to accommodate 
all thus invited. 

The nature of the services at the house is determined solely by 
the wishes of the near relatives, and nothing can be imagined more 
cruel or impolite than to either criticise them, or the lack of them. 

Where the burial is to be in another city, it is entirely proper to 
have the services conducted at the grave. 

In the chamber of death, or at the grave, the members of the 
family need not recognize their acquaintances. 

As the coffin is borne from the house to the hearse and from the 
hearse to the grave, all gentlemen should remain with uncovered 
heads, either until the funeral cortege is ready to move or the cere- 
monies at the grave are at an end. 

CONVERSATION AND SOCIAL CORRESPONDENCE 

Forget yourself; remember others: in these four words lies the 
secret of agreeable conversation or social correspondence. The 
charm of letter writing consists in the ability to stamp your personality 
on the paper, if that personality is of the tender, considerate kind. 
But before that point is reached where the charm of conversation 
and correspondence issues forth as subtly as the fragrance from 
flowers, it is often necessary to pass through a season of real self- 
discipline. 

On this point again we shall refer briefly to the advice of our old 
friend, Lord Chesterfield: "He who studies to conceal his own 
deserts, who does justice to the merits of others, who talks but little 
of himself and that with modesty, makes a favorable impression on 
the persons he is conversing with, captivates their minds and gains 
their esteem." 

To Be an Agreeable Conversationalist you must be a ready sympathizer. 
Without monopolizing the conversation you must do your share 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 595 

of the talking; but, above all things, be a good listener, and when 
you perceive others talking about things which you know are painful 
to any of the company, aim in a natural way to change the current 
of talk. 

To be a ready sympathizer you must not allow yourself to be 
absent-minded. Even in the home circle few things are more humil- 
iating than to find that one's words have fallen on deaf ears; while, 
in general company, one who is inattentive, or absent-minded, is con- 
sidered very impolite. 

Habitual absent-mindedness in general company is either the 
mark of a very weak mind, or one which is far above the ordinary 
affairs of life. Something may be allowed to genius, but the fault 
mentioned usually accompanies an inferior or an affected nature. 

Don't get to be an habitual story-teller, or you will become 
tiresome. An occasional short story, right to the point, is an agree- 
able diversion from the current of the average small talk of general 
society; but the person who comes to believe that his mission in the 
world is to spice every topic with at least one story becomes some- 
what tiresome. 

When a story is told don't interrupt the narrator to have him 
explain it. Let him tell it in his own way to the end. Otherwise you 
indirectly criticise his performance, which is certainly neither con- 
siderate nor polite. 

Avoid all topics which may be disagreeably applied by those in 
your presence, and, upon no account, speak slightingly of those who 
are absent. 

Don't talk politics, or religion, if you see that such subjects are 
likely to create arguments which soon run into contentions. 

Don't make a positive statement such as "This is so," or "These 
are the facts in the case;" but say "I believe this is true," or "This is 
my opinion." Otherwise very thoughtful people get into this habit 
of making positive statements, absolutely unqualified, so that it is 
virtually impossible to carry on a conversation with them. 

Overlook deficiencies in others, and, upon no account, parade the 
knowledge before another which you know he does not possess; the 
latter is a species of cold-blooded humiliation imposed upon another 
which is not only the height of impoliteness, but of "refined" cruelty. 

On the other hand, do not persistently attempt to "draw out" 



596 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

people. If one desires to inform you as to personal details in which 
you may be interested, or upon some general subject about which 
you think he may inform you, place the opportunity before him, but 
if he does not seem disposed to be "drawn out," do not persist in 
your attempts. If you do, it is an implication that you doubt his 
ability to satisfy you. 

Neither attempt to lionize a person, when such a position is mani- 
festly distasteful to him, or to make another the butt of ridicule, 
however ridiculous the person or delicate your satire. 

Keep a check upon your words. However well you are acquainted, 
do not speak of "the old man" or "the old lady;" it is better even to 
not inquire for "your husband" or "your wife." Use the titles "Mr." 
or "Mrs."; or, if the absent ones have honorable titles, "the General," 
or "the Judge." 

Impose a certain amount of self-restraint upon yourself; but avoid 
all mannerisms. That is, do not have one way of talking to young 
gentlemen and another of conversing with young ladies. 

Social Correspondence. — It is taken for granted that any person who 
would be interested in suggestions as to the proper forms and agree- 
able features in social correspondence is versed in the common rules 
governing capital letters, punctuation and grammar, and" the general 
form of a social letter, with the date line toward the upper right 
hand corner and the salutation (or address of the person to whom 
you are writing) below and to the left. Even in the general style, 
however, there are variations, especially in the form and place of 
salutation. It is a safe rule to follow, however, to place the name 
and city residence above the address which is less definite, if your 
correspondent is not an intimate friend, or you are writing on 
business matters, as: "John H. Smith, Esq., Chicago, 111.," above 
"Dear Sir." Some, however, would place the "John H. Smith, Esq.," 
at the end of the letter, below and to the left of the signature of the 
writer. 

If you are writing to a comparative stranger, or sending an 
important letter of any kind, it is well to place your name and 
address upon the envelope, in the left hand corner. 

As to forms of salutations and subscriptions, you must ever keep 
in mind your relation to your correspondent. If you are writing to a 
comparative stranger, or in a formal way. "Sir" or "Madam," or 



PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL TRAINING 597 

"Dear Sir"or "Dear Madam," with "Yours Respectfully" or "Respect- 
fully Yours" would be the proper forms. Such superscriptions as 
"I am, Dear Madam, Your Very Obedient and Humble Servant," etc., 
is not considered a mark of etiquette in America. There may be 
occasions, however, when you are addressing foreign officials or dig- 
nitaries, that it would be considered bad breeding to fail to subscribe 
yourself in the very formal and perhaps antiquated manner to which 
they have been accustomed. 

As the correspondent's intimacy increases, his salutations and 
superscriptions decrease in formality, passing through all the grades — 
"My Dear Sir" or "My Dear Madam," and "Yours Truly," "Sincerely 
Yours," etc; "Dear Friend," "My Dear Friend," "Dear Jennie," 
"Dearest Jennie," "My Own," etc., with "Most Truly Yours," "Sin- 
cerely Yours," "Ever Yours," etc. It is impossible and would be a 
waste of words to suggest the various changes that may be made in 
both salutations and superscriptions, until the correspondent reaches 
those very intimate relations when all formality is discarded and the 
forms become matters of personal preference and originality. 

In speaking of superscriptions, never contract the habit of always 
signing yourself "Hastily Yours;" it is not only affected, but usually 
a very thinly veiled excuse for a slovenly and unsatisfactory letter — 
unsatisfactory both to sender and receiver. 

It is the height of folly to offer special directions to correspond- 
ents as to how they should write letters of love, of congratulation, of 
condolence, etc. In such matters the writer must eventually fall back 
upon his own sense of propriety, and for him to follow any set rules 
would make his communications stiff and unsympathetic and at once 
defeat the object for which they were sent. The best general rule to 
observe, however, is — even in matters of love: Without being abrupt, 
do not waste words, but come bravely and courteously to the point. 
If it is a case of misfortune, or death, do not attempt to lighten the 
blow by suggesting that "misfortune comes to us all," etc. 

When you are replying to a letter, it is considered a school-boy or 
school-girl style to take up your friend's communication, piece by 
piece, and comment upon it. If any information is asked you should 
give what you consider the most important points, at once, and 
endeavor in every way to treat your correspondent by letter as if you 
were replying to her in person. 



598 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Never deal in profuse apologies about pen, paper, ink, delays in 
replying, etc. A simple, direct excuse, when you really feel that you 
have delayed your reply beyond the bounds of courtesy, is due from 
you, and will be, as a rule, well received; but when you go beyond 
that, it may seem that you are guilty of a greater offense than you 
really are. 

Official Forms of Address. — It usually happens that several times in 
the course of his life the average man or woman, who has not been 
thrown into the society of high officials, will desire to dispatch a 
communication to persons of rank, but is in doubt about how they 
should be addressed. For the benefit of such we give a list of some 
of the most important. 

The president of the United States is addressed as "His Excellency 
the President of the United States." 

The address Honorable (Hon.) should be applied to ex-presidents, 
vice-presidents and members of the United States Senate and House 
of Representatives, and to governors of states. Lieutenant-governors, 
members of the legislature and mayors of cities are also often 
"honored" thus. 

The special form of address to a governor is "His Excellency the 
Governor of Illinois"; to a judge, "His Honor Judge Smith"; to a 
mayor, "The Honorable Mayor of New York City." 

Members of the British Parliament are "Sir David Jones, M.P.," 
or even "David Jones, Esq., M.P." If he is a duke, after the former 

address, should be "His Grace the Duke of ." A duke's children 

are "Right Honorable." 

The king is "The King's Most Excellent Majesty" and, after the 
formal salutation, he is addressed as "Sire," or "May it Please Your 
Majesty." 

The queen is "The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty" and 
"Madam"; the princess, "Her Royal Highness." 

A cardinal is addressed as "His Eminence," an archbishop as 
"The Most Reverend," and a bishop as "The Rt. Rev.," with such 
titles as D.D. following the names. 

An ambassador is "His Excellency" and a consul has no distinc- 
tive form of address, the latter depending upon the rank or title 
which he is entitled to assume in his own country. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
ART OF RECEIVING AND ENTERTAINING 

What Is Expected oi the Hostess — Rules and Forms as to Invitations and 
Introductions — Dinners, Suppers, Luncheons, Etc — Literary Entertain- 
ments and Music — Cards and Other Games — Novel Entertainments — 
Outdoor Amusements — Hints to the Hostess Regarding These and Many 
Other Matters. 

In the previous chapter the writer has viewed various matters of 
etiquette from the standpoint of the visitor and guest, or from the 
limited confines of the home circle. This chapter treats of the art of 
receiving and entertaining and is a review of the situation from the 
standpoint of the host or hostess. 

The guest has a comparatively easy task — that of conducting 
himself with propriety. Although it is expected that he will do 
what he can to add to the general pleasure of the company, he is not 
obliged to entertain. The hostess, on the contrary, is under strict 
obligations to do everything in her power to make it pleasant for her 
guests, and is expected to have decided upon some forms of amuse- 
ment beforehand. In order to be really successful in the art of 
receiving and entertaining guests, the hostess should possess not only 
pleasing manners and tact in bringing together those who will be 
most congenial, but she must have a certain cool and executive dis- 
position, that she may not be flurried over any embarrassing situation 
and that the program may be carried out with promptness and 
smoothness. 

Invitations and Introductions. — Certain well-defined rules have been 
adopted by good society as to the form of invitations to various 
social functions, the style of the invitation and the manner of sending 
it being determined by the formal or informal nature of the recep- 
tion. Invitations to suppers, or informal affairs, may be written on 
the left-hand 'corner of the hostess' visiting card, as "Mrs. Julia 
Brown, from five to eight o'clock," cr "Mrs. John H. Gridley, at home 

599 



600 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

on Monday, January Eighteenth, Tea at five o'clock." If sev- 
eral ladies receive, all their cards must be enclosed with the invi- 
tation. Invitations to suppers may be extended in the same way, or by 
means of a friendly note, the hostess being sure in all cases to name 
a definite hour and the nature of the reception, informal though it be. 

For elaborate affairs, such as balls or receptions given in honor of 
distinguished persons, particular attention should be given to the 
quality of the stationery. The invitations may be written on note 
paper (cream colored, preferred), heavy, finely grained and unruled, 
and folded but once, with envelope to match. If the invitation is in 
the form of a card, the latter should be heavy and placed in a square 
envelope of large size. 

Invitations to elaborate and formal gatherings are, of course, 
couched in formal language, as: "Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Thorndike 
request the pleasure of your company at dinner, to meet Governor 
Jones, at 8:30, 126 Graceland Avenue. R. S. V. P." 

Such invitations should be sent out by messenger at least two 
weeks in advance of the event and the reply should be promptly 
returned, also by messenger. 

It often happens that the guest of the evening is so distinguished 
that it is considered better form to place his name first, as: "To 
meet Governor Jones, Mr. and Mrs. Thorndike at home," etc. 

But whatever the invitation and whether in the form of a note or 
a card, don't forget to convey a definite idea of the nature of the 
reception, as otherwise your guest will be placed in the embarrassing 
predicament of not knowing how to dress and otherwise arrange her 
coming. As stated, this information is usually conveyed in a few 
words in the left-hand corner of the card, if the reception is rather 
informal, such as: "Five o'clock tea," "Small dance," "Matinee 
Musicale," etc. In the case of an evening party or ball, where the 
hostess does not desire her guests to come in full dress, or make 
other extensive preparations, she writes "informal" upon her card of 
invitation. 

In sending out your invitations be sure that you dispatch a joint 
invitation to husband and wife. 

Should there be several young ladies in the family, one invitation 
is also sufficient for all. If there are several sons, it is considered 
better form to send one to each. 



ART OF RECEIVING AND ENTERTAINING 601 

But it is a great mistake to include two unrelated young ladies or 
gentlemen in one invitation, although they may be living in the same 
house. 

When the guests commence to arrive, it is best for the hostess 
(provided she has a servant or other assistant to first receive them) 
to take a position near the main entrance, where she can be readily 
seen and easily reached. It is best that she should not move from 
room to room, until at least the majority of her guests have arrived. 

If they are not acquainted then comes the ordeal of a proper 
introduction. This, however, need cause' no uneasiness if several 
cardinal points be always kept in mind; they are: 

(a) Gentlemen must be presented to ladies, as "Miss Jones, allow 
me to make you acquainted with Mr. Smith;" or simply, "Miss Jones, 
Mr. Smith." As a rule, the simpler the form of introduction, the 
better; although it sometimes happens that the hostess may have 
been especially desirous that two of her friends should meet, when 
by making the introduction more elaborate she is able to throw more 
cordiality into the ceremony. 

(b) Youth must be presented to age. 

(c) Inferior rank must be presented to superior; for even in the 
most unpretentious society there are obvious differences in the rank 
of people thrown together, aside from the purely artificial and 
unworthy distinction often created by wealth. 

If the hostess cannot herself introduce unacquainted guests while 
others are arriving, during the earlier portion of the evening, it is 
proper for her to request an intimate friend to do so, and to entertain 
the stranger until the latter has evidently been placed in a position 
to feel at ease. 

These preliminaries to an entertainment of any kind are usually 
the most trying stages to a hostess, as, after all the guests have 
become acquainted and conversation becomes general, formalities 
are, in a measure, placed in the background and each guest does his 
part to lighten her burdens. In receiving, especially, the hostess 
must know how to stand properly and gracefully. Upon no account 
should she place her hands upon her hips or behind her. The most 
natural and graceful attitude is to stand easily, when not actually 
welcoming the guests, with one hand placed lightly in the other. 
Perhaps an even better rule is to endeavor to forget the hands entirely. 



602 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Dinners, Suppers, Luncheons, etc. — Dinners are attended by both 
sexes, while suppers are more apt to be given by, and for gentlemen, 
and luncheons and afternoon teas are the particular delight of the 
fair sex. Breakfasts are customary among literary people of both 
sexes, whose working hours are usually chosen in the latter part of 
the day, ten o'clock being the customary hour for such events. 
When a supper is on the program, it is usually only one of the enter- 
taining features, such as music, dancing, etc., but the dinner is 
virtually all-in-all — to use an appropriate, although somewhat crude 
expression, "the whole thing." 

This is the occasion when conversation should be at its best, when 
there should be no privacies between guests, and when host and 
hostess should show the utmost care not only in bringing together 
people who are congenial, but in the seating of those who are 
invited. 

It is generally considered that the oval-shaped table is best 
adapted for the dinner party, with the host and hostess facing each 
other at the sides. 

The most enjoyable dinner party has neither too many guests nor 
too many servants; either extreme is apt to create confusion. 

As to table decorations and food, suggestions have been given 
elsewhere, but one precaution should be made emphatic, and that is 
against placing flowers upon the table which have pronounced 
perfumes, as those which may be agreeable to some may be so 
distasteful to others as to make enjoyment of any kind impossible. 

If convenient, it is better to have the carving done away from the 
table, as the guests are thereby served more promptly and with less 
confusion. 

If two servants are waiting upon the table, the guest to the right 
of the host should be served first, and then those in order, and in 
that direction, until the hostess is reached on the other side of the 
table; the second waiter should commence with the guest to the right 
of the hostess and serve in that direction until the host is reached, who 
is served last. 

The servant should have a napkin so arranged that it will cover 
the thumb and any other portion of the hand which rests upon the 
inside of the dishes. 

If the dinner is given in honor of a person, or persons, in entering 



ART OF RECEIVING AND ENTERTAINING 603 

the room the host should escort the most honored lady first, and last 
should come the hostess with the most honored gentleman. 

Whether the dinner is given to a select few, or to many, the more 
substantial courses should be preceded by soup, fish or oysters and 
be followed by salad, desserts, nuts, sweetmeats and coffee. 

The breakfast, on the other hand, is ushered in with fruit, followed 
by eggs, or breakfast food, and some light meat, such as duck or fried 
chicken. 

Literary Entertainments and Music. — There are few receptions or 
entertainments of a general and social nature which do not embrace 
some of the features mentioned above. In the arrangement of the 
programs, as well as the selection of the participants, the hostess 
carefully considers the tastes and temperaments of her guests. 

If most of the company are young society people she does not 
burden the company with essays on political or philosophical subjects, 
or selections from the great dramatists, but sees that the prevailing 
tone of the program is light and lively. Should she have in the 
company one who would be shocked by anything approaching to the 
frivolous in the treatment of religious topics, she is careful that 
nothing shall be rendered to offend. If one has been unhappy or 
unfortunate in her marriage relations, that fact is also taken into 
consideration; and, as she has arranged the program, she is held to 
accountability for any jars or pain which it occasions. 

The same rule applies to the carrying out of a musical program, 
as a whole, although, of course, the hostess cannot be held responsible 
for what occurs as the result of encores, in case the participants are 
not members of her family. 

Speaking to this latter point, it should be remarked that it is in 
bad taste for the hostess to parade the accomplishments of her 
family before her guests, when she has reason to know that there is 
other talent in the company which might have added to the general 
entertainment had it been called into play. 

It is also impolite for the hostess, or any member of the company 
for that matter, to insist that any one shall declaim, read, or render 
music, when it is evident that there is a disinclination to do so. The 
refusal may come from the knowledge of one's inability to do justice 
to the subject, or at least from a feeling of uncertainty as to the 
result, and is therefore prompted by a desire to save the company 



604 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

from the embarrassment which springs from the perception of 
embarrassment in another. 

Cards and Other Games. — As a rule, if there is to be any enter- 
taining aside from music, declamation or literary matters, the hostess 
selects cards as the main feature. If young people are to be present, 
however, it is thoughtful and courteous to provide other games, such 
as dominoes, backgammon and checkers. 

A very simple game from which the young people may derive 
much sport is played with the full set of checkers and a common 
thick glass, or tumbler. The latter is placed in the middle of a large 
table, the checkers are equally divided between the players and the 
party is divided into two "sides." The players snap their checkers 
from the edge of the table, the object being to shoot your opponent's 
men off the table, or get as near the glass as possible. Every checker 
which is shot off the table is placed in the glass, where it remains 
until the end of the inning, counting one point for the side whose 
player snapped it off. The other points are determined by the 
number of checkers on each side which are nearest the glass. The 
game may consist of any number of points determined on, and, with 
practice, the skill acquired in shooting, or snapping, is quite remarkable. 

For the older people some form of euchre or whist is generally 
decided upon, the nature of the game depending upon individual 
preferences. It is a bad plan to mix your games — that is, have some 
euchre tables and some whist; since it is well known that scientific 
whist players are much annoyed by the noise and chatter which 
usually accompanies the more lively and perhaps shallow games of 
euchre. So the hostess should "stick to her text" and it is seldom, 
now-a-days, that she does otherwise. We can only give this advice 
to those who wish to be scientific whist players: Commence by care- 
fully studying Hoyle and Pole on the rules of the game. 

It should not be forgotten, also, that there are certain observances 
which constitute the etiquette of whist. Hoyle's Etiquette embraces 
the following points: 

Two packs of cards should be used at regular clubs. 

Anyone having the lead and several winning cards to play should 
not draw a second card out of his hand until his partner has played 
to the first trick, such being a distinct intimation that the former has 
played a winning card. 



ART OF RECEIVING AND ENTERTAINING 605 

No intimation whatever, by word or gesture, should be given by a 
player as to the state of his hand, or of the game. 

The question "Who dealt?" is irregular and, if asked, should not 
be answered. 

A player who desires the cards to be placed, or who demands to 
see the last trick, or who asks what the trump suit is, should do it for 
his own information only, and not in order to invite the attention of 
his partner. 

No player should object to refer to a bystander, who professes 
himself uninterested in the game and able to decide any disputed 
question of facts. 

It is unfair to revoke (to neglect to follow suit) purposely. Having 
made a revoke a player is not justified in making a second in order 
to conceal the first. 

Bystanders should make no remark. Neither should they by 
word or gesture give any intimation of the state of the game until 
concluded and scored. Nor should they walk around the table to 
look at the different hands. 

There are several variations from the regular game of whist 
which often furnish agreeable diversions. In French whist, for 
example, the points in the game are forty instead of ten, the honors 
count for those who win them and the ten of diamonds, while not 
played as a trump, counts ten, and is therefore the most important 
card in the pack to retain. 

There are also various forms of euchre besides the regulation 
game — such as three-handed, set-back and French. The latter game 
is played with twenty-eight, instead of thirty-two cards, both sevens 
and eights being discarded. The players bid for the trump and the 
one who bids the highest must, with the help of his partner, take the 
majority of the tricks to make the points which he bid; if he is 
euchred, his opponents count the number of points which he failed to 
make. Fifteen is the game. 

Cribbage is a mild, pleasant game for two, but is going out of 
vogue, although many elderly people prefer it to any other, and 
it is well for the hostess to have a board on hand to meet emer- 
gencies. 

Bezique and pinocle are quite popular with many who seek a 
diversion from both whist and euchre. The former is ordinarily 



606 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

played by two persons with a euchre pack of thirty-two cards, the 
game being 1,000 points, and the following cards or combination of 
cards counting: ace or ten, taken or saved, 10 points; seven of 
trumps, played or turned up, 10 points; the last trick, 10 points; king 
and queen of same suit other than trumps (a common marriage), 
20 points; king and queen of trumps (a royal marriage), 40 points; 
queen of spades and knave of diamonds (simple bezique), 40 points; 
four knaves, 40 points; four queens, 60 points; four kings, 80 points; 
four aces, 100 points; a sequence (quint major), 250 points, and two 
queens of spades and two knaves of diamonds (double bezique), 
500 points. 

Pinocle, which is essentially a German game but becoming quite 
popular in America, is played with two packs of cards, by retaining 
only the cards above the eight. Two, three or four persons may 
play the game, which is for 1,000 points. The points depend on the 
individual value of the cards won or retained, as well as the combina- 
tions of cards. The special values are as follows: ace, 11 points; ten, 
10 points; king, 4 points; queen, 3 points; knave, 2 points, and nine, 
nothing, unless it is turned up as a trump, when it counts 10 points. 
The combination values are: eight aces, 1,000 points; eight kings, 
800 points; eight queens, 600 points; eight knaves, 400 points; two 
queens of spades and two knaves of diamonds (double pinocle), 
300 points; ace, king, queen and knave of trumps, 150 points; four 
aces of different suits, 100 points; four kings of the same, 80 points; 
four queens of the same, 60 points; four knaves of the same, 
40 points; queen of spades and knave of diamonds (pinocle), 
40 points; king and queen of trumps (royal marriage), 40 points; 
king and queen of suit not trumps, 20 points. The game is won the 
moment the 1,000 mark is reached, and if a player claims the game 
before he has actually won it, he forfeits it. The official score is 
usually kept by an outside party. In making combinations of cards 
no one card can be used twice. 

The game of hearts is also a popular card amusement. It is 
played with a whist pack, there are no trumps and the object of the 
game is to avoid taking any trick which contains a heart. 

But as card playing is almost as old as civilization, it is obviously 
impossible to exhaust the subject here, and we can only give a few 
hints for the benefit of the entertainer. 



ART OF RECEIVING AND ENTERTAINING 607 

Novel Entertainments. — In a mixed company, the members of which 
have quite a diversity of tastes, it is well for the entertainer to fix 
upon some forms of amusement in which all may join. 

A suggestion, which is never followed without causing much 
interest and amusement, is for the hostess to arrange with those who 
are to attend the party for their photographs, showing them at their 
youngest ages. Having been collected the photographs are numbered, 
and slips having the corresponding numbers are prepared for the 
expected guests. These slips are distributed, but care is taken that 
only those numbers shall appear upon them which represent persons 
actually present. Each guest then endeavors to identify the photo- 
graphs, writing the name of the person opposite the corresponding 
number on her slip, the name of the guesser being written at the top 
of the slip. 

If there is time, the hostess may then suggest that, as her friends 
have guessed as to the earliest photographs, they should have a 
chance to show their skill at the latest likenesses. Each guest should 
then be furnished with a sheet of paper numbered at the top, for 
which there must be a sheet with a corresponding number — that is, 
there must be two sets of duplicate sheets. Each guest having found 
his duplicate, the company separates into pairs, each member 
drawing the likeness of the other to the best of his ability. When 
all have finished, the drawings are collected and pinned on a curtain, 
after which each artist identifies as many as possible, the sides of the 
sheets upon which the drawings are made being numbered con- 
secutively. 

These forms of amusement train the eye to detect peculiarities of 
features or expression, as well as to note details of dress, while 
others are sometimes provided to test the other senses — such, for 
example, as that of smell. Get a number of homeopathic vials and 
place therein long enough so that the fragrance or odor will still 
cling to them, such substances and liquids as arnica, rose water, pep- 
permint, tobacco, tar, tea, coffee, quinine and sarsaparilla, or anything 
else which may occur to you, and, having placed the vials on the 
center table, invite your friends to identify the scents. The differ- 
ences of opinion as to what they originally contained will be sur- 
prising as well as amusing. 

In all such cases it adds to the interest, as well as the pleasure of 



6o8 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

the company, to provide some simple prizes to be given to the most 
successful guessers. 

The game of Predicaments, although of German origin and not 
new, is always mirth-provoking and novel to many. The way to play 
is to whisper a predicament to your right-hand neighbor — for 
example, "Suppose in entering the church to be married, just as the 
organ struck up the Wedding March, your nose should commence to 
bleed — what would you do?" Having stated the predicament you 
whisper the remedy to the guest on your left, "I should beckon the 
head usher and request him to state that as I was temporarily indis- 
posed, the ceremony would have to be deferred for a few minutes." 
It can readily be seen how much amusement will be caused by the 
coupling of predicaments and remedies which were not intended for 
each other. 

Ingenuity with pencil may afford many novel forms of amuse- 
ments. A simple suggestion is to provide sheets of paper, which are 
placed upon a table in an even pile, the leader being provided with 
six pins. Five of these are held above the pile of sheets, a few feet 
away, and dropped so that they will not fall off. The sixth pin is 
used to mark the heads of the other five, the holes being made 
through the entire pile of sheets. Each guest is then to draw the 
picture of some animal, the outlines of which shall include one pin 
hole in the head and one in each of the hands and feet, or feet alone, 
if the figure be other than human. 

Or the artist may commence with the head of any figure, fold the 
paper over so as to conceal his effort and pass along to the right, for 
the addition of the body. His right-hand neighbor having com- 
pleted the body, hands the paper over to the right-hand guest, who 
adds the lower limbs. When the papers are unfolded, as each artist 
is ignorant of what his neighbor has done, the results are often 
extremely grotesque. 

A variation from the old-fashioned game of "puss-in-the-corner" 
is for the players to place their chairs in a circle, one being empty, 
and the person who is standing in the center endeavor to sit in it. 
As the rule is for each person to sit in the unoccupied chair to the 
right, this is often extremely difficult. As the circle of players is 
continually moving to the right, as rapidly as possible, the game is 
often called the Whirlwind. 



ART OF RECEIVING AND ENTERTAINING 609 

Who Knows That Nose? is played by the audience endeavoring 
to guess the possessor of the nose, which is thrust through a slit in a 
curtain. The company before and behind the curtain should be 
about equally divided, so that the correct guess will not be so easy a 
matter. 

In these days of mind-reading and occult mysteries, the person 
with a little ingenuity may sometimes astound a party in a very 
simple fashion — when you know how the trick is done. Each person 
in the room is asked to write a word, or short sentence, on a piece of 
paper. The slips are collected in a hat, which is placed on the table 
before the "mind-reader," who proceeds to draw one and press it to 
his forehead, covering it carefully with his fingers. He may make up 
any word for this first slip and afterward lay the paper, with the 
writing side up, near the hat. As he proceeds to draw the next slip, 
he glances at the one he has laid down and, as he presses the second 
to his forehead, repeats the word or words he has seen on the first; 
and so on. This trick can usually be successfully played when there 
are quite a number of persons in the room, so that by comparing 
notes they will not be likely to discover that the mind-reader has 
made a sad mistake in repeating the words written on the first slip. 

In winter provide yourself with a piece of camphor and you may 
show the company the astonishing spectacle of a blazing snowball, 
provided you can slip your camphor into it, unobserved, while 
packing it into shape. You must be careful to get the camphor near 
enough to the surface so that it will readily ignite. 

If you are with intimate friends and wish to have some innocent 
fun with one of them, whom you know will take the joke good- 
naturedly, play Farmyard. Give all your friends the name of some 
farmyard animal or fowl, including, of course, the donkey Instruct 
them all, except the one who is to bray, that at the given signal to 
commence the "concert" they must be perfectly silent. All being in 
readiness the signal is given, with the result only of one loud bray. 

The above are simple forms of entertainment for young people 
and those of mature years, whose tastes are varied. It is hoped that 
they will at least assist our readers to pass many pleasant informal 
evenings and especially lighten the burdens of those called upon to 
lead in the entertainment of others. 

Outdoor Amusements. — When it comes to the subject of outdoor 



6io PRACTICAL RECIPES 

amusements, the art of entertaining is a less difficult matter, as the 
participants naturally feel less restraint and, in the open air, the 
individual is much more apt to be free and natural. Boating, bathing, 
horseback riding and bicycling, are open to all, and, of late years, in 
the large cities, parties are organized, in suitable weather, to take 
trolley rides. A car is chartered and in some grove, or other 
pleasure grounds, a luncheon is provided by the entertainer, or, i it 
is a picnic of the good old-fashioned kind, each brings his quota of 
edibles. 

Croquette, lawn tennis and golf are ever with us through the 
warm months, and all the changes imaginable, from the church 
affair to the high-society function, with music, dancing and gorgeously 
decorated grounds, are rung upon the lawn party itself. 

Skating and sleighing parties, ice-boating and toboganning, with 
snow-shoe racing and "skeeing" tor the more northern sections of 
the country, and especially the Canadian and Scandinavian elements, 
constitute popular forms of winter amusements, in which the enter- 
tainment depends little on personal management, but rather on indi- 
vidual enthusiasm and favorable external conditions. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
BUSINESS TRAINING 

The Advantage to Everyone of Business Methods — Simple but Approved 
Ways of Keeping Books — General Entry Book, Day Book, or Book of 
Original Entry — The Cash Book — List of Common Business Terms with 
Abbreviations — The Journal and the Ledger — Trial Balances, Closing 
the Ledger, etc.— Accounts — Aids in Business — General Postal Sugges- 
tions — Minimum Weights of Produce. 

In America more than in any other country a certain amount of 
business training is considered to be an advantage to everyone. We 
have already suggested how the farmer, or other person who does 
not feel inclined to master standard business methods, may still keep 
his accounts according to a simple and practical system. There are 
others, however, whose transactions may be larger and more compli- 
cated, who have not been able to attend a commercial college and yet 
are anxious to clearly understand the principles of business. Having 
once mastered the simple principles they may readily apply them to 
individual cases. This is, therefore, an education which not only 
develops methodical ways and enables one to accomplish a large 
amount of work with a settled and clear mind, but becomes a spur to 
originality. 

Simple or Complex — Single or Double Entry. — The first thing to be 
decided is whether the nature of your business requires a simple or a 
complex system of bookkeeping. If you decide in favor of the 
former you will adopt the system of single entry bookkeeping — that 
is, you will have a general entry book, known as the Day Book, or 
Book of Original Entry, in which you will record all transactions. 
This will show you how you stand toward any individual or firm with 
whom you have had any dealings. Be careful to always record dates 
and particulars, so that if you have other books you will have no 
difficulty in transferring and classifying the items. 

If any mistakes occur, especially if you are an employee and enter- 
ing the transactions for another person, it is better to make your 
corrections in red ink than to erase anything. 

6ll 



6i2 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

The Day Book alone is not considered sufficient to properly 
record business transactions however limited, it being almost 
impossible to keep it so that prompt information may be obtained 
either as to the general status ot the business or of special 
accounts. 

Besides the Day Book it is considered quite necessary to have a 
Cash Book, in which is entered items of receipts and expenditures in 
cash. In case you have a separate Cash Book, these items should not 
be recorded in the Day Book. 

Another important class of items to keep separate from the Day 
Book includes the sales of the store or farm. This is known as the 
Sales Book, and when used by the merchant sometimes consists of a 
copy of the bills which he sends to his customers. The opposite of 
this is the Invoice Book, in which are recorded all items showing the 
purchases made. 

Supposing, however, that it has been decided to keep only a Day 
Book and a Cash Book. It must be remembered that in the Day Book 
every separate transaction must be recorded; there must be no 
grouping of items, and the amount of each item, whether it be a 
purchase and an expense (credit) or a sale and a receipt (debit), 
should be carried out toward the right-hand margin of the book. 
The common words "bought" and "sold" are used in the Day Book, 
but when the Cash Book is opened, the debit (Dr.) items should be 
entered on the left-hand page, or left half of a page, and credit items 
(Cr.) on the right-hand page, or right-hand half of page. 

List of Business Terms, with Abbreviations. — In the course of business 
transactions many terms and abbreviations are in common use, which 
to many are at least not clearly understood. For handy reference 
we give below a list of some of the most common: 

Accommodation paper — Credit, or commercial paper advanced. 

Accrued — Interest (usually) due, but unpaid. 

Account sales — Statement rendered by merchant, or agent, show- 
ing net profits from goods sold for another. 

Ad lib. — At pleasure. 

Ad valorem — According to value. 

Assignee — An agent to whom property is assigned to be sold for 
the benefit of creditors. 

Assignor — One who transfers or assigns something to another. 



BUSINESS TRAINING 613 

Attachment — Holding of a person or goods by legal means to 
secure a debt. 

Attorney (Power of) — A document by which a person authorizes 
another to act in his stead. 

Auditor — One authorized to adjust accounts. 

Bill of exchange — An order from creditor to debtor, by the 
acceptance of which the latter agrees to pay the former a specified 
sum upon a certain day. 

Bill of lading — A freight receipt given by any transportation agent, 
and when presented at the point of destination by the shipper, calling 
for the delivery of goods by the carrier. 

Bills discounted — Documents calling for money in the future, 
from the face value of which bankers have deducted certain sums in 
return for allowing the holders the cash — minus the discount. 

Bills payable — Commercial paper held against others. 

Bills receivable — Commercial paper due from others. 

Bot. — Bought. 

Brot frd. — Brought forward. 

Call loan — A secured loan subject to call, or to be repaid at any 
time. 

Carte blanche — Blank paper, excepting a signature, giving one 
authority to do anything which in his judgment he thinks proper. 

C. B.— Cash Book. 

Cash credit — Privilege, obtained by deposited security, of drawing 
cash from a bank. 

Certified check— Check certified to, by the bank on which it is 
drawn, making the bank formally responsible for its payment. 

Clearance — Certificate by which the custom authorities allow a 
vessel to leave port. 

Clearing house — Place where banks settle their accounts and 
differences. 

Collateral (coll.) — Security to indemnify a lender, in case the 
money loaned is not paid. 

Collect on delivery (C. O. D.)— Form of bill, which, when so 
marked, authorizes collection upon delivery of goods. 

Consignment (Const.)— The sending of goods to a party for sale. 

Consignee — The one to whom the goods are consigned. 

Consignor — The one who consigns goods. 



6i 4 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Conveyance — The legal paper by which property is transferred. 
Coupon — Interest certificate, which is clipped off when payment is 
made. 

D. B.— Day Book. 

Days of grace — Three days legally allowed beyond date of pay- 
ment mentioned in the note. 

Debenture — A certificate allowing the seizure of property named 
in the mortgage, if the conditions mentioned are not carried out. 

Del credere — A term by which the credit of the purchaser is 
guaranteed. 

Donee — One to whom a bequest is given, or a gift is made. 

Donor — The one who gives or bequeathes. 

Dormant — A silent partner. 

E. E. — Errors excepted. 

Estoppel — A person's act which prevents him from making a 
given plea, or defense. 

Face — Exact sum named in a note. 

Factor — One to whom the actual goods are consigned for sale; if 
he sold by sample the agent would be a broker. In the former case 
the commission is called factorage; in the latter, brokerage. 

Fac simile — An exact copy. 

Fee simple — The title by which a person holds an estate in his 
own right and by which it descends to his heirs. 

Free on Board (F. O. B.) — A term implying the delivery of goods 
by the shipper to the point of destination; a bill or invoice thus 
marked includes all shipping expenses 

Freehold — Land held in fee simple. 

Guarantee, or guaranty — A surety for performance of a certain 
act. 

Guarantor — One who makes the guarantee, or stipulations. 

Hypothecate — To take as security. 

Indemnity — Recompense for injury or loss. 

Indenture — An agreement in writing between several parties. 

Intestate — Dying without making a will, 

I. B. — Invoice Book. 

Joint stock — Stock held jointly, as by a company. 

Jour. — Journal. 

Legal tender — Legal money. 



BUSINESS TRAINING 615 

Letter of credit — A letter by which the writer authorizes the 
holder to receive money on the writer's account. 

Lien — A legal claim on property to satisfy a debt. 

Liquidation — The settling of accounts, or the paying off of debts. 

Manifest— List comprising articles in a ship's cargo. 

Margin — The sum deposited with a broker to meet any loss to the 
investor caused by a decline in stocks. 

Maturity — The date when a draft or note is due. 

Mortgagee — The person to whom a mortgage is given. 

Mortgagor — One who gives a mortgage. 

Negotiable paper — Written obligations, such as notes, checks, or 
drafts, which may be readily transferred. 

Open policy — A policy not yet closed, or upon which amounts are 
to be ascertained and insured. 

O. C. — Over charge. 

Premium — Payment for insurance. 

Prima facie — On the first view. 

Protest — A notary's official notice of non-payment of a written 
obligation. 

Pro rata — According to the rate; proportionately. 

Prox. — The coming month. 

Reversionary interest — An interest in property which reverts to a 
former owner, either at a certain date or at the death of the holder. 

Scrip — Dividends payable in stock. 

Set-off — A claim off -setting a debt. 

Short exchange — Bills payable at sight, or a few days after being 
issued. 

Silent partner — One who furnishes capital, but whose name does 
not appear as a member of the firm. 

Sinking fund — A fund set apart for the payment of debts. 

Ult. — The previous month. 

Underwriter — An insurer, or one who underwrites his name to a 
policy. 

Usury — Excess of interest over the legal rate. 

Waiver — The relinquishment, or waiving of any right. 

The Journal and Ledger. — If it is desired to commence a more com- 
plicated system of bookkeeping than is included in running a Day 
Book and a Cash Book, a Journal may be opened. This is also a 



616 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

simple matter, after having the principles firmly fixed in mind that 
expenses and outgoes are on the credit, or right-hand side of the 
Ledger, and the receipts or incomes on the debit, or left-hand side. 
This writing of debits and credits is called journalizing, the chief 
difficulty being in the ability to promptly determine to what accounts 
to charge the separate items. 

In a set of books which aims to be really complete, the Ledger is 
the most important of all, as here is condensed the net result of the 
business transactions as well as a summary of all separate accounts. 
It is in the Ledger that the real science of bookkeeping is demon- 
strated, and it would, therefore, be presumption here to attempt to 
go into details as to how it should be properly conducted. 

It is from the face of the Ledger that the bookkeeper takes off his 
trial balance, the most important being of the year, and woe be to 
him if he has allowed a mistake to creep in. Carelessness in the 
transfer of items from the Day Book or the Journal to the Ledger may 
involve the expenditure of hours of labor before they are detected. 
As a safeguard against errors the taking of trial balances at the end of 
each month is customary, where the business is large and compli- 
cated. When the trial balance is correct, the Ledger is said to be 
closed, and the bookkeeper breathes a great sigh of temporary relief. 

Accounts. — The bookkeeping world divides accounts into two 
classes, known as Speculative and Non-speculative; the former shows 
losses and gains, such as Stock and Merchandise; the latter, liabil- 
ities and resources, such, for instance, as Bills Receivable and Cash, 

Bills Payable Account. — When one issues any written obligation, 
such as a note, the amount is credited to this account and when he 
pays it, or meets it, the amount is debited. 

Bills Receivable Account. — When one receives a written obligation 
from another he debits the amount to this account and when trans- 
ferred, or paid by the original holder, it is credited. 

Capital, or Proprietor Account. — This account shows the status of 
the business toward the capital invested, or the proprietor. When 
there is more than one partner it is almost necessary to open it at 
the time of beginning business. The liabilities of any partner are 
debited and his resources credited. 

If he withdraws capital such amount is debited and if he invests 
new capital it is credited. 



BUSINESS TRAINING 617 

Commission Account. — This account is credited with the receipts 
of commission from the merchant's customers; if he should hire an 
agent, or other merchant, to aid him in selling goods, and pay the 
latter a part of his own commission for so doing, that amount would 
be debited to the account. 

Discount and Interest Account. — When one pays discount, or 
interest, for money borrowed he debits the amount to this account 
and if he receives discount, or interest, from another he credits it. 

Expense Account. — The items in this account include all the 
running expenses of a business, unless any one class should prove so 
large as to warrant a subdivision. The merchant, for instance, may 
buy so many fixtures, or pay out so much for rent or machinery, that 
he may decide to open a separate account covering those expenses. 
In that case he only includes those items in Expense Account which 
he has not otherwise classified. Again, he may travel a great deal, 
or be obliged to make many personal expenditures in various ways, 
when he would, if a methodical business man, open a Personal 
Expense Account. 

Loss and Gain (Profit and Loss) Account. — Of course the differ- 
ence between the credits and debits of this account determines the 
loss or gain of the business. 

Material and Labor Account. — This is a subdivision of the 
Merchandise Account often made by manufacturers, the charges 
being for raw material and expenditures of labor on any product. 

Real Estate Account. — When a business is greatly expanding this 
is often a very important account, involving as it does, on the debit 
side of the ledger, the cost of real estate, with expenditure for 
repairs and taxes, and on the credit side, the receipts on account of 
sales and rents. 

Sales Account. — Expenses incurred by the commission merchant, 
or agent, in handling goods are debited to this account and the net 
proceeds are credited to it. 

Store Fixtures Account. — This is separate from the Merchandise 
Account, since the merchant does not expect to profit by selling the 
fixtures, and he does not charge them to Expense Account because 
they possess an intrinsic value. 

Business and Partnership Agreements. — For complete self-protection 
it is absolutely necessary that every business agreement be in writing, 



618 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

and the closer the friendship the more important is the precaution. 
The latter may seem like a strange statement and yet we all know 
that we are all loth to insist upon what might seem like trifles with 
friends in matters of business, when if we had taken the original pre- 
caution to have all points stated in writing there would be little like- 
lihood of a misunderstanding. 

If either party to a business agreement misrepresents his financial 
condition, or otherwise makes fraudulent representations, the 
contract is not binding, although written, and attested by a notary. 

If there are two parties to a business agreement, the paper should 
be prepared in duplicate and each should have a copy; in fact, as 
many copies should be furnished as there are parties to it. 

Partnerships may be formed, in which the parties put into the 
business equal or unequal amounts of capital, with their services; or 
in which knowledge and experience are placed as an offset to capital. 
In some cases a person may contribute his share of the capital and 
have a voice in its management, but not appear as a member of the 
firm, in which case he is a silent partner; on the other hand if he 
takes no active part in the management, but contributes to the 
capital and shares the profits, he is called a dormant partner. Each 
partner, however, whether active, silent or dormant, is liable for the 
acts or debts of all the others, though contracted in their individual 
capacities. 

AIDS IN BUSINESS 

It is strange, but nevertheless true, that many business men, con- 
sidered quite capable, are ignorant about many things which should 
be common knowledge. There is no country in the world, for 
instance, which approaches the United States in the magnitude of its 
domestic mail operations. Yet the average business man, who is 
using the mails continually, is quite ignorant about the rates and the 
details of the postal law governing the mailing of the different 
classes of matter. 

General Postal Suggestions to the Business Man. — The following 
instructions and suggestions issued by the Post-Office Department 
should be carefully followed by every business man who wishes to 
have his mail promptly forwarded: 

Mail all letters, etc., as early as practicable, especially when sent 



BUSINESS TRAINING 619 

in large numbers, as is frequently the case with newspapers and 
circulars. 

All mail matter at large post-offices is necessarily handled in great 
haste and should therefore in all cases be so plainly addressed as to 
leave no room for doubt and no excuse for error on the part of postal 
employees. Names of states should be written in full (or their abbre- 
viations very distinctly written) in order to prevent errors which arise 
from the similarity of such abbreviations as, Cal., Col.; Pa., Va., Vt.; 
Me., Mo., Md.; la., Ind.; N. H., N. Y., N. J., N. C, D. C; Miss., 
Minn., Mass.; Nev., Neb.; Penn., Tenn., etc., when hastily or care- 
lessly written. This is especially necessary in addressing mail matter 
to places of which the names are borne by several post-offices in 
different States. 

Avoid as much as possible using envelopes made of flimsy paper, 
especially where more than one sheet of paper, or any other article 
than paper, is inclosed. Being often handled, and even in the mail 
bag subject to pressure, such envelopes not infrequently split open, 
giving cause of complaint. 

Never send money or any other article of value through the mail 
except either by means of a money order or in a registered letter. 
Any person who sends money or jewelry in an unregistered letter not 
only runs a risk of losing his property, but exposes to temptation 
every one through whose hands his letter passes, and may be the 
means of ultimately bringing some clerk or letter-carrier to ruin. 

See that every letter or package bears the full name and post- 
office address of the writer, in order to secure the return of the 
letter, if the person to whom it is directed cannot be found. A much 
larger portion of the undelivered letters could be returned if the 
names and addresses of the senders were always fully and plainly 
written or printed inside, or on the envelopes. Persons who have 
large correspondence find it most convenient to use "special return 
envelopes"; but those who only mail an occasional letter can avoid 
much trouble by writing a request to "return if not delivered," etc., 
on the envelope. 

When dropping a letter, newspaper, etc., into a street mailing-box, 
or into the receptacle at a post-office, always see that the packet falls 
into the box and does not stick in its passage; observe, also, particu- 
larly, whether the postage stamps remain securely in their places. 



620 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

Postage stamps should be placed on the upper right-hand corner 
of the address side of all mail matter. 

The street and number (or box number) should form a part of the 
address of all mail matter directed to cities. In most cities there are 
many persons and even firms, bearing the same name. 

Before depositing any package or other article for mailing, the 
sender should assure himself that it is wrapped and packed in the 
manner prescribed by postal regulations; that it does not contain 
unmailable matter nor exceed in the limit of size and weight, as fixed 
by law; and that it is fully prepaid and properly addressed. 

The postage stamps on all mail matter are necessarily cancelled 
at once, and the value of those affixed to packages that are afterward 
discovered to be short-paid, or otherwise unmailable, is therefore 
liable to be lost to the senders. 

It is unlawful to send an ordinary letter by express, or otherwise 
outside of the mails, unless it be inclosed in a government-stamped 
envelope. It is also unlawful to inclose a letter in an express 
package unless it pertains wholly to the contents of the package. 

It is forbidden by the regulations of the Post-Office Department 
for postmasters to give to any person information concerning the 
mail matter of another, or to disclose the name of a box-holder at a 
post-office. 

Letters addressed to persons temporarily sojourning in a city 
where the Free Delivery System is in operation should be marked 
"Transient" or "General Delivery," if not addressed to a street 
and number or some other designated place of delivery. 

Foreign books, etc., infringing United States copyright are unde- 
liverable if received in foreign mails, or mailed here. 

The foregoing rates, rules, and suggestions apply to postal matters 
in the United States. 

Domestic Rates of Postage and Money Orders. — The rates and regu- 
lations governing domestic postage apply to the United States and 
its island possessions of Guam, Hawaii, Porto Rico, Tutuila and the 
Philippines. 

First Class. — Letters and all written matter, whether sealed or 
unsealed, and all matter closed against inspection, either by nailing, 
sewing, wrapping or in any other manner, so that the contents cannot 
be removed from the wrapper and returned thereto without muti- 



BUSINESS TRAINING 621 

lating either, are subject to first-class rate of postage, 2 cents per 
ounce or fraction thereof. 

Special Delivery. — Any article of mailable matter, bearing a 
10-cent special delivery stamp, in addition to the lawful postage, is 
entitled to immediate delivery on its arrival at the office of address 
between the hours of 7 A. M. and 1 1 P. M., if the office be of free- 
delivery class; and the hours between 7 A. M. and 7 P. M. if the office 
be other than a free-delivery office. To entitle such a letter to 
immediate delivery, the residence or place of business of the 
addressee must be within the carrier limits of a free-delivery office 
and within one mile of any other office. 

Second Class. — On all regular newspapers, magazines and other 
periodicals issued at stated intervals not less frequently than four times 
a year, when mailed by publishers, the postage is one cent for each 
pound. A special rate of one cent for four ounces is made for all 
second-class matter by other than publishers or newsdealers. 

Third Class embraces printed books, pamphlets, circulars, 
engravings, lithographs, proof-sheets with manuscript accompanying 
same and all matter of the same general character of personal corre- 
spondence. Circulars produced by the mimeograph, hectograph, 
electric pen and other similar processes of transfer in imitations of 
hand or type-writing, are mailable at the third-class rate of 
postage when presented to the post-office or carrier station in not 
less than twenty identical copies. Rate of postage, one cent for each 
two ounces or fraction thereof. 

Fourth Class. — All mailable matter, like merchandise, not included 
in the three preceding classes, which is so prepared for mailing as to 
be easily taken from the wrapper and examined. Rate, one cent per 
ounce or fraction thereof, except seeds, roots, cuttings, bulbs, plants 
and scions, which are one cent per two ounces. Limit of weight, four 
pounds. 

Money Order Fees. — For domestic money orders in denomina- 
tions of $100 or less, the following fees are charged: 

For orders for sums not exceeding $2.50 3c 

For over $2.50 and not exceeding $5 5c 

For over $5 and not exceeding $10 8c 

For over $10 and not exceeding $20 .,,,,.. 10c 



622 PRACTICAL RECIPES 

For over $20 and not exceeding $30 12c 

For over $30 and not exceeding $40 15c 

For over $40 and not exceeding $50 18c 

For over $50 and not exceeding $60 20c 

For over $60 and not exceeding $75 25c 

For over $75 and not exceeding $100 30c 

Minimum Weights of Produce. — Country merchants will be interested 
to know the minimum weights of the following articles, as fixed by 
the laws of the United States: 

Barley 48 pounds per bushel 

Blue grass seed 44 

Bran 20 

Buckwheat 48 

Castor beans 46 

Clover seed 60 

Corn, in the ear 70 

Corn, shelled 56 

Corn-meal 48 

Dried apples 26 

Dried peaches 33 

Flax seed 56 

Hemp seed «. . . . 44 

Hungarian grass seed 50 

Malt 34 

Millet seed 50 " " 

Oats 32 

Onions 57 

Peas 60 

Peas, ground 24 

Salt (State laws), coarse, 50 to 80 
Salt (State laws), fine . . 55 to 62 

Sweet potatoes 55 

Timothy seed 45 

Turnips 55 

Wheat 60 

White beans 60 

White potatoes 60 



INDEX 



A 

Page 

A Practical Spring Remedy 74 

Accounts (Bookkeeping) 616 

Bills Payable 616 

Bills Receivable 616 

Capital or Proprietor 616 

Commission 617 

Discount and Interest 617 

Expense 617 

Loss and Gain (Profit and Loss). . . . 617 

Material and Labor 617 

N on -speculative 616 

Real Estate 617 

Sales 617 

Speculative 616 

Store Fixtures 617 

Address, Official Forms of. : 598 

Agreements, Business 618 

Partnership 618 

Almond Dainties 278 

Pudding 278 

Alum Water (Hot) for Insects 104 

Angora Goat, Good Qualities of 542 

Ant Hills, to Destroy 362 

Antidotes for Poisons 55 

Antiseptics 39 

Apple Conserve 266 

Dumplings 264 

Omelet 265 

Pudding 264 

Sauce 263 

Shortcake 264 

Souffle 265 

Trifle 265 

Apple Orchard, Grafting 426 

Planting 425 

Apple Punch (Hot) 293 

Water 297 

Apple and Crabapple Jelly 290 

Apples (Cooking of) 262 

Baked 263 

Canned, Fried 266 

with Corn-starch 265 

and Honey 265 

and Lemon 265 

Scalloped 264 

Suggestions for Cooking 266 

Apples (Raising of) 425 

Assorting 427 

Cold Storage 429 

Packing 428 



Page 
Apples — Continued. 

Picking 427 

Storing for Winter 428 

Apricots with Cherries 272 

Art of Receiving and Entertaining. . . . 599 

Asparagus, Growing 389 

Properties of 203 

Ashes Help Growth of Young Trees. . . 420 

B 

Baby, How to Keep It Well 52 

Baby Etiquette 5QI 

Baby's Underwear, How to Wash wi 

Bad Breath, How to Cure 67, 305 

Bacteria 35 

Bagging the Ripening Grapes 404 

Baked Pear Pudding 271 

Baking Bread 236 

Banana Boats 281 

Cream 280 

Souffle 280 

Sponge 281 

Bananas, Baked with Cream 280 

Boiled 281 

and Cream 280 

Banbury Cakes 234 

Barley 356 

Bath Cabinet (Home-made) 316 

Bathing, Suggestions on 26, 315 

Baths in Sickness 48 

Bavarian Cream, Chestnut 279 

Coffee 274 

Bean Pickles 197 

Soup 161 

Beans (Cooked) 216 

Boston Baked 216 

Croquettes 217 

Curry of 217 

Fresh 204 

Lima 217 

Rarebit 217 

Bedbugs, Destroyed 136 

Bedding for Winter and Summer 134 

Bedrooms, Ventilation of 30 

Bed Sores 48 

Beds and Bedding 26 

Bee and Wasp Stings, How to Soothe 

Them 57 

Beef 174 

Balls 176 

Boeuf aux liqueurs 175 



623 



624 



INDEX 



Page 
Beef — Continued. 

Chipped 176 

Frizzled 175 

Hamburg Steaks 176 

Hash 176 

Mock Duck 176, 177 

Pie 174 

Pot Pie 177 

Pot Roast 177 

Ragout of 175 

Beef (100 pounds), Curing of 189 

Beef Soup 158 

Bees, Food of 558 

Foul Brood of 565 

Handling 556 

Italian, the Best Variety 554 

Old and New Ways of Raising 555 

Spring Dwindling 563 

Watering 558 

Wintering 560 

Bees, Honey and Wax 554 

Beeswax, How Extracted 568 

Beet, Qualities of 204 

Relish 195 

Belgian Hare, Roast 187 

Benzine as a Moth Destroyer 105 

Berries, Growing 396 

Beurre Noir 188 

Beverages 293 

Bezique 605 

Bills Payable , 616 

Receivable 616 

Bird and Insect Pests 358 

Birds, Care of 544 

Birds Should Be Protected 432 

Biscuits, Drop 233 

Soda 234 

Tea 233 

and Rolls 233 

Black Ants, How to Destroy 433 

Blackberries, Growing 400 

Blackberry Juice, to Preserve 295 

Black Eye, How to Take the Color from, 65 

Black Finish on Brass 96 

Blackheads, How to Remove 301 

Black Inks, Recipes for 82 

Black-knot Fungus 437 

Blackleg, Vaccination as a Preventive. . 500 

Black Rot in Cabbage 381 

Blankets, Easy Way to Clean 136 

What to Do with Worn-out 135 

Bleaching Flannels with Sulphur 112 

Blind Staggers 487 

Blue Luminous Paint 85 

Body and Bed Clothing, Treatment of, 

in Infectious Diseases 41 

Body-blight 439 

Boiled Milk for Bowel Diseases 75 

Boils and Carbuncles, How to Treat 

Them 69 



Page 

Bonbons 292 

Bone Meal as a Fertilizer 334 

Book of Original Entry 611 

Bookkeeping, Accounts 616 

Book of Original Entry 611 

Cash Book 612 

Day Book 611 

Journal 615 

Ledger 616 

Sales Book 612 

Trial Balance 616 

Books, How to Clean 103 

Borax for Insect Bites 58 

as a Medicine 50 

Borers, a Farmer's Way to Kill 434 

Apple Tree 434 

Peach 435 

Boston Bean Croquettes 217 

Bots in Horses 487 

Bowel Diseases, Boiled Milk for. 75 

Brandy Sauce for Pudding 286 

Brass, How to Make Black Finish on. . . 96 

Bread, Making and Baking 236, 237 

Bread Griddle Cakes 251 

Sticks 241 

Tarts 275 

Bread Used to Clean Wall Paper 108 

Bread and Biscuits, Temperatures foi . . 156 
Bread, Muffins, Cake and Desserts.... 236 

Breakfast Cereals 228 

Dishes 183 

Breakfasts 603 

Breeding Poultry 458 

Brood Mare, Periods of Gestation 482 

Brooder for Chickens, Best 462 

Broom Corn 352 

Brooms, How to Make Them Last 

Longer 10S 

Brown Sauce 188 

Bruise, Best Treatment for 59 

Bruises, Splinters, Cuts and Burns 59 

Bugs on Vegetables, Saltpeter for 413 

Burns and Their Treatment 59 

Business Agreements 617 

Aids 6r8 

Terms 612 

Training 611 

Butter, Don't Overwork 508 

Packing for Winter Use 508 

Butter Making and Its Secrets 506 

Buttered Shrimps with Eggs 167 

Butternut Sauce 188 



Cabbage 212 

Baked 212 

Escalloped 212 

Salad 201 

Cabbage Worm 416 



INDEX 



625 



Page 

Cabbages, How to Keep 379 

Varieties of 204 

Cake 242 

Buttercup 243 

Cherry Sponge 247 

Chocolate (Pittsfield) 245 

Chocolate Eclairs 246 

Chocolate Fritters 247 

Christmas Fruit 243 

Cream 245 

Farmers' Fruit 244 

Fig 244 

Frosting for 248 

Hominy 246 

Icing (White), for 248 

Tumbles 247 

Marshmallow 248 

Molasses 244 

Orange 245 

Potato Caramel 246 

Rich Fruit 243 

Roll Jelly (Grandmother's) 244 

Sally Lunn 247 

Sunshine Cake 245 

Calling Etiquette 583 

Calves, Teaching How to Drink 498 

What, When and How to Feed. . . . 497 

Calving Cows, Oats for 496 

Canary Birds, Care of 545 

Food for 547 

Mating of 546 

Cancers, Tumors, etc., Treatment for. . 303 

Candy, Fudges 292 

Hickory Nut 292 

Molasses Taffy 292 

Peanut 292 

Canned Fruit, Keeping 290 

Canning (Fruit) 288 

Apples 289 

Blackberries 289 

Peaches 289 

Pears 289 

Plums 289 

Canning (Vegetables) 290 

Beans 29 1 

Corn 290 

Corn and Tomatoes 291 

Ptas 291 

String Beans 291 

Tomatoes 291 

Capital or Proprietor Account 616 

Caramel Sauce for Pudding 285 

Carbolic Acid 39 

Carbuncles, How to Treat Them 69 

Cards, Use of 584 

Cards and Other Games 604 

Care of the Eyes 304 

Farm Machinery 324 

the Lawn 409 

the Mouth 305 



Page 

Care of the Patient 46 

the Sick Room 37 

Carpets, How to Clean, on the Floor. . . 104 

Carrot, Qualities of 204 

Carrots, Baked 214 

Croquettes 214 

Fritters 214 

Cash Book 612 

Casserole of Rice with Calves' Brains. . . 185 

and Meat 185 

and Tomato 223 

Castor Bean, Growing 386 

Castor Oil — Making It Easy to^Take. . . 74 

Cathartics for Poisons 55 

Cats, Diseases of 551, 552 

Cattle, Beef 489 

Dairy 492 

Dehorning 490 

Diseases of 499 

Catsups, Recipes for 191 

Cauliflower (Prepared) 212 

au Gratin 213 

Boiled 212 

Cauliflowers, Raising 381 

Celery, Growing 390 

Celery (Prepared) 221 

au Jus 221 

Minced, with Egg 221 

Qualities of 204 

Salads 201 

Cellar for Cooling Milk 507 

Cellar Mold, Sulphur for 90 

Cement for Fastening Wood to Stone . . 80 

Gas and Steam Pipes 80 

Rubber or Leather 79 

Various Substances 81 

Cereal Loaf 241 

Chalk Dust in the Hair (for Teachers) . . 310 

Chapped Hands, Lotion for 312 

Characteristics of Fever 49 

Charcoal for Chickens 451 

to Make 327 

Cheese Cakes 233, 241 

Croquettes 233 

Fingers 241 

Nut Salad 201 

Sauce 232 

Souffle 232 

Welsh Rarebit 233 

Cheese Making, Factory 511 

Home 510 

Cherries, Growing 432 

Cherry Sponge Cups 247 

Cherry Stain for Woodwork 93 

Chervil, Growing 395 

Chestnut, Bavarian Cream 279 

Ice-cream 278 

Puree 278 

Salad 202 

Sandwiches 228 



6z6 



INDEX 



Page 

Chestnuts, Scalloped 228 

Chicken 168 

a la Baltimore 168 

Croquettes 171 

Deviled 1 69 

Fricassee (with Rice) 170 

Fried 169 

Giblet Sauce for 171 

Hollandaise 170 

Mock Oysters with 169 

Pan 170 

Panada 171 

Soup 158 

Turnovers 173 

Chicken Cholera 466 

Chicken Feathers 464 

Chicken Meat, Cost of Producing 464 

Fattening Cockerels 465 

Chicken Wing, Use for 108 

Chickens 442 

Breeds 446 

Brooder 462 

Chicks and Their Care 462 

Cleanliness 444 

Diseases and Pests 465 

Egg-eaters 454 

Exercise 443 

Fall Feeding 448 

Food 443 

Hen and Brood 459 

Incubator 460 

Shade in Summer 443 

Water 443 

Winter Food 451 

Winter Poultry House 449 

Chickens and Eggs 442 

Chicory with Cream Sauce 216 

Chili Sauce 192 

Chinch Bugs, Exterminating 360 

Chloride of Zinc 39 

Chocolate Cream 276 

Eclairs 246 

Fritters 247 

Sauce 285 

Chocolate Pudding, Creole 276 

Steamed 277 

Choking, How to Treat 54 

Chopped Dates with Apple Sauce. . . . : 284 

Pickle 198 

Chopping Bowls, How to Keep from 

Splitting 113 

Chow-chow 196 

Christening Etiquette 591 

Christmas Caraway Cakes 248 

Churn, How to Keep Flies Out of 134 

Cider, How to Keep 266, 296 

Pudding 267 

Spiced Apples with 267 

Cistern to Be Kept Clean 321 

Clams, Luncheon 167 



Page 
Clams — Continued. 

Pie 167 

Squares 167 

Cleaning Kid Gloves 122 

Cloth Made Fireproof 99 

Made Waterproof 99 

Clothing, How to Remove Spots from. . 119 

Its Relation to Health 24 

Clover and Timothy Crops 340 

Clover Bloat in Cattle 499 

Coal Oil for Cleansing 103 

Cockerels, Caponizing and Fattening. . . 465 

Cocklebur, How to Get Rid of It 348 

Cockroaches, How to Remove 104 

Cocktails (Egg) 2-3 

Cocoanut Beverage 297 

Codfish, Boiled (Salt) 164 

Fried 164 

Codlin Moth 438 

Coffee Bavarian Cream 274 

Coffee Cake 235 

Coffee Drinkers, Advice to 316 

Coffee Pots Must Be Clean 133 

Cold Baths 27 

Cold Water for Common Recent Burns. 60 

Commission Account 617 

Color Destroyed by Acid, How to Re- 
store 123 

Color of Clothing, Relation to Health. . 25 

Colored Crayons from Dyes 84 

Inks 84 

Pencils 84 

Colt, Educating 484 

Fall 483 

First Year 483 

Commercial Side of Dairying 513 

Common Recent Burns, Cold Water 

for 60 

Common Sense in the Sick Room 44 

Complexion, How to Care for 298 

Brush 299 

Florid 300 

Powder 300 

Rough 302 

Convalescent Patient, Food for 46 

Condensed Rules for Emergencies 54 

Consumption (Tuberculosis), How to 

G uard Against 36 

Milk Strippings for 76 

Contagion, How Communicated 35 

How to Prevent 35 

Conversation, Art of 596 

Cookies, Caraway .' 248 

Cocoanut 248 

Cream 248 

German Christmas 249 

Ginger Snaps 249 

Orange 248 

Cooking, Degrees of Heat for Best 155 

Copying Ink from Dyes 84 



INDEX 



627 



Page 
Cold and Frost, How They Improve the 

Soil 336 

Corn, Preparing Sod Land for 339 

Corn Bread 240 

Pumpkin 240 

Rice 240 

Corn Gems 240 

Corn-meal Recipes 239 

Corn Pickle 197 

Corn Soup 159 

Corn-stover, Care of 351 

Corn and the Corn Field 345 

Corns and Corn Cures 68 

Corpses, Treatment of, in Infectious 

Diseases 42 

Correspondence (Social), Art of 5g4 

Cosmetic Jelly for the Hands 312 

Rough Skin 302 

Cotton Seed Meal as a Fertilizer 333 

Cotton Goods, Washing, Without Fad- 
ing 122 

Cotton and Linen Clothing 25 

Cow-pea as Hay Producer 344 

Cranberry Jelly 283 

Pudding 282 

Soy 283 

Cracked Hands, Copal Varnish for 311 

Cracks in Plaster, How to Fill 97 

in Wooden Floor 97 

Cream Combination Soup 160 

Cream of Tartar a Mild Cathartic 74 

Cream of Celery Soup 160 

Creamed Bologna 183 

Creamed Fish 164 

Creamed Potatoes and Ham 182 

Creams and Custards 273 

Crecy Soup 162 

Cresses, Growing 396 

Crop-bound Hen 468 

Crowd Out Weeds with Turnips 374 

Cucumber, Qualities of 204 

Cucumber Bugs (Striped) 416 

Cucumbers, Stewed, on Toast 226 

Cucumbers and Sweetbread Salad 226 

Curculio 438 

Curing Meats 189 

Pork 523 

Skins of Small Game 363 

Curling Iron, Use of 307 

Custard Cups 274 

Macaroni 274 

Magic 274 

Pudding 273 

Cut, Ho w to Treat 59 

Cut Artery, How to Compress 54 

Vein 54 

Cut Bone for Chickens 451 

Cut Flowers, Keeping Fresh 145 

Cuttings, How to Grow 410 

Cutworms 417 



Page 

D 

Dairy 505 

Dairy Cow, Best 492 

Don't Excite 494 

Drying Up 495 

Food for 492 

Kicking 495 

Dairying, Commercial Side of 513 

Damp Sheets, Danger in 70 

Dandruff 307 

Dark Rings under Eyes, to Remove. . . 304 

Date Apple Sauce 263 

Bread 284 

Confection 284 

Gems 284 

Pudding 284 

Puffs 285 

Sandwiches 284 

Dates and Figs 283 

Day Book 611 

Dead Hair 308 

Decorating the Thanksgiving Table .. . 127 

Deep and Shallow Plowing 339 

Degrees of Heat for Best Cooking 155 

Delicate Fabrics, How to Clean 117 

How to Do Up 118 

Deodorants 39 

Deviled Fish 163 

Dining-room, Kitchen and Bedroom.. . . 125 

Dining-room "Handy" (Cabinet) 128 

Dinners, Etiquette at 602 

Diphtheria, Tar and Turpentine for ... . 70 

Dirty Barrel, How to Clean It 98 

Disagreeable Breath, How to Cure 67 

Discount and Interest Account 617 

Diseases, Classification of 34 

Dish Towels in Abundance 132 

Disinfectants, Lime and Charcoal as. . . 73 

Chloride of Lime as 73 

Disinfection, Its Importance and 

Methods 39 

Dogs, Care of Young 550 

Diseases of 551 

to Tell Age by Teeth 550 

Washing White 551 

Double Service for Stair Carpets 106 

Doughnuts Not Greasy 249 

Sugar 249 

Dress, Harmonizing Colors in 577 

to Make Work Easier 138 

Drop Cakes (Eggless) 247 

Drowned, How to Revive the 61 

Dry Scab on Cattle 499 

Drying the Face 315 

Duck (Roast) with Apples 173 

Ducks, Water and Food for 473 

Dumplings, Never Failing 242 

Norfolk 242 

Togus Loaf 242 

Yorkshire Pudding 242 



628 



INDEX 



Page 
Dust from the Eyes, How to Remove. . 54 
Dyes and Dyeing 85 

E 

Ear, How to Remove Insects from 66 

Earache, Quick Relief for 66 

Easy Way to Clean Windows 101 

Eczema, Simple Cure for 303 

Egg Anchovy Sauce 188 

Chops 230 

Omelets 231 

Recipes 230 

Soup 162 

Suggestions 229 

Egg-eaters, How to Cure 454 

Egg-plant 218 

Escalloped 2ig 

Fried 218 

Fritters 2 iS 

Stewed 218 

Stuffed 218 

Egg Shampoo for the Hair 310 

Egg Tester 458 

Eggs, Boiled (Cooked) 230 

Fried 230 

on Toast 230 

To Take Stains from 230 

Eggs, Care of (Fresh) 455 

Detecting Bad 230 

Effect of Food on 452 

for Hatching 459 

Preservatives for 456 

Tester for 458 

Elderberry Wine 296 

Egyptian Coffee 294 

Electricity as a Crop Stimulant 337 

Elephant Leg (see Elephantiasis) 486 

Elephantiasis (Elephant Leg) 486 

Emergencies, Condensed Rules for. ... 54 

Emetics for Poisons 55 

Endemic Diseases 34 

Enemies of the Orchard 433 

English Bun Loaf 234 

Ensilage 349 

Escalloped Fish 165 

Noodles and Oysters 166 

Erasing Ink with Chemicals 83 

Etiquette, Baby 591 

Calling 583 

Christening 591 

Funeral 593 

Home 586 

Party 588 

Rainy-Day 579 

Street (for Men) 581 

Street (for Women) 577 

Street-car 581 

Table 587 

Visiting 582 

Wedding 592 



Page 

Etiquette (Continued), Whist 604 

Euchre, French 605 

Ewes and Lambs 534 

Expense Account 617 

Eye, How to Remove Bits of Dirt from 65 

Eyebrows, Care of 305 

Eye Disease (see Ophthalmia) in Cattle 499 

Eyelashes, to Help Growth of 305 

Eyes, Care of 64, 304 

F 

Facial Eruptions, How to Cure 301 

Faded Green Blinds, How to Renew.. 102 

Faded Plush, to Brighten 122 

Ribbons 121 

Fainting, How to Treat 63 

Fall Foal 483 

Family Wardrobe, Managing 138 

Farina 228 

Farm, How to Fertilize 330 

Farm Crops, Varied 356 

Farm Fencing 322 

Farm Hygiene and Common Dirt 321 

Farm Machinery, Care of 324 

Farm Pump, Home-made Wind Engine 327 

Farm Reading 320 

Farmers Accounts 319 

Telephone Lines 319 

Farmyard, Game of 609 

Fatal to all Insects 413 

Feather Beds, Cleaning 136 

Feather Business 470 

Feet, How to Care for 313 

Felons and Their Treatment 68 

Fence Posts, Rails, etc., Preservation of 325 

Ferns (Growing) for Table Pieces 145 

Fertilizers, Commercial 368 

Direct, or Nutritive 330 

Indirect, or Stimulant 335 

Fever, Characteristics of 49 

Fever Patients, Relish for 75 

Fig Custard 285 

Pudding 285 

Filter for Farm Use 322 

Finger-nails, Care of 312 

Finnan Haddie (Baked) 163 

(Boiled) 163 

(a la Delmonico) 163 

Fire, How to Smother 54 

Fire Escape gi 

Fireproof Ink 84 

Cloth 99 

Curtains 99 

Paper 84 

Shingles 91 

Wood 92 

Fish Chops 165 

Fish, Filling for 164 

Fish Casserole . .' 165 

Chops 165 



INDEX 



629 



Page 
Fish {Continued), Filling 164 

Sauces 188 

Fish, Meat and Soup Recipes 153 

Flannels, How to Iron 113 

How to Wash no, in 

Fleece of Wool, Most Marketable 538 

Flies, How to Drive Away go, 488 

Florid Complexions 300 

Flower Seeds, How to Water 146 

Flowering Shrubs, Layering 410 

Foamy Sauce for Pudding 286 

Foul Water, How to Purify 73 

Food, How to Keep, from Spoiling. ... 156 

Food Values and Nourishment 154 

Foot Rot in Sheep 541 

Farm, How to Perfect . . . 313 

Foul Brood of Bees 565 

Founder 487 

Freckles, to Remove 302 

Freezing and How to Treat It 64 

French Pickles 196 

Frosting for Cake 248 

Frowning, How to Cure 304 

Fruit, as an Antidote for Intemperance 76 

When and Why to Eat 75 

Fruit Cake, Christmas 243 

Farmer's 244 

Rich 243 

Fruit Cream Sauce for Pudding 286 

Fruit Flavors, How to Blend 286 

Fruit Jars, Care of 290 

Fruit Juices, How to Preserve 295 

Fruit Pudding Sauce 286 

Fruit Salads 202 

Fruit Sandwiches 275 

Fruit Stains Removed from Clothing. . 119 

Linen 120 

Fruits as Food 24 

with Medicinal Properties 50 

Frying, Rules for 156 

Fumigation 41 

Funeral Etiquette 593 

Furniture (Broken), How to Save g4 

Furniture Polish 93 

Q 

Game, Recipes for Cooking 186 

Game of Bezique (Cards) 605 

Farmyard 609 

French Euchre 605 

French Whist 605 

Hearts (Cards) 606 

Pinocle (Cards) 606 

Predicaments 608 

Whirlwind 608 

Who Knows That Nose? 609 

Gapes in Young Fowls 467 

Garden 365 

Draining 366 

Fertilizing 367 



Page 

Garden (Continued), Planting 366 

Watering 367 

Weeding 3 74 

Garden Tools 370 

Garget in Milch Cows 503 

Geese 475 

Gem Melons, Raising 406 

General Health Conditions 31 

General Household Recipes 100 

German Toast 253 

Germicides 39 

Giblet Sauce, Chicken 171 

Spiced 174 

Ginger Beer 294 

Gingerbread, Almond 250 

Fairy 250 

Molasses 250 

Ginger Snaps 249 

Ginseng and Peanuts 411 

Girls, (Little), Teaching to Sew 142 

Winter Clothing for 141 

Glanders 487 

Glass, How to Polish 109 

Glass Bottles, Made Clean no 

Glass Cut, How to Relieve 58 

Glazed Peach Pudding 268 

Glue and Cement Recipes 80 

Glycerine for the Hands 311 

Goats, a Word for 542 

Gold Fish, Care of 552 

Good Digestion, a Word Concerning. . . 73 

Gooseberries, Growing 401 

Gooseberry Shrub 297 

Grafting Wax 427 

Graham Bread 239 

Gems 239 

Grain Weevil, Destroying 360 

Grains as Food 23 

Grape Apple Butter 282 

Marmalade 282 

Mush 282 

Salad 20t 

Wine 295 

Grape Culture 402 

Grapes, Bagging 404 

How to Keep 281 

Grass Crops 341 

Gray Luminous Paint 86 

Grease Spots Removed 119 

Taken from Wallpaper 108 

Green Ink, Recipe for 82 

Luminous Paint 85 

Green Manuring, Advantages of 332 

Green Pea Soup 160 

Green Pepper Salad 226 

Green Peppers, Stuffed 225 

Stuffed with Mushrooms 226 

Green Tomato Pickle 198 

Pie 212 

Sauce 191 



630 



INDEX 



Page 

Greens (see Salad Vegetables) 395 

Griddle Cakes, Bread 251 

Pumpkin 252 

Groceries Not to Be Left in Paper Bags 132 

Ground Glass Windows, Substitute for. 95 
Ground Mice, to Treat Trees Wounded 

by 440 

Guard Your Water Supply 33 

Guinea Fowls (Larded) 174 

Gums, How to Keep Healthy 305 

Gunpowder Burns, How to Treat 60 

H 

Haddock (Baked Fresh) 163 

Hair, Brushing 307 

Combing 307 

Dressing 309 

Dyes 309 

Tonics 310 

Washing 306 

Hair Brushes and Combs, to Clean 137 

Ham (100 pounds), Curing of 189 

Ham, Potted 183 

and Creamed Potatoes 182 

and Eggs 182 

Salad 200 

(San Juan) and Eggs 182 

Hamburg Steaks 176 

Hand Hoe, Care and Use of 371 

Handkerchiefs (School), Making 142 

Hands, Cleaning Dirty 311 

Reducing Fat 312 

Stains Taken from 311 

Hard Soap, Recipes for 88 

Hard Water, How to Make It Soft 88 

Harness Polish 99 

Hash, German 184 

Senator Hanna's 184 

West Indian 184 

Hats, How to Clean Properly 140 

Hay Making 342 

Heaves 487 

Health and Its Universal Interest 17 

Hedge Fences, How to Kill 326 

Hellebore Powder as an Insecticide. . . . 414 

Herbs as Household Remedies 50 

Hiccoughs — A Simple Cure 68 

Hog Cholera 524 

Hogs .' 516 

Breeds 526 

Diseases 524 

Exercise 518 

House 517 

Mixed Rations 521 

Warm Food in Winter 523 

Water 518, 521 

Home Etiquette 5 86 

Home Remedy for Consumption 76 

Home-made Beverage 293 

Filter 134 



Page 
Home-made Wind Engine as a Pump. . 327 

Hominy Patties 228 

Honey, an Aid to Digestion 566 

Artificial 568 

Clarifying 568 

Comb 566 

Extracted 567 

Horseradish, Qualities of 205 

Growing 390 

Horses 477 

Doctoring 485 

Farm 477 

Food and Feeding 478 

Hair and Hoofs, Care of 481 

Protect from Cold 480 

Water and Watering 479 

Hot Beet Salad 201 

Hot Weather Bath Suggestion 28 

Drink 295 

Hours of Sleep Required 28 

House Plants, Suggestions About 142 

Housecleaning, Rules for too, ioi 

Household Mucilage 81 

Household Pets 544 

Housework, Dress to Make It Easier. . . 138 

How to Make It Easier. . . . 129 

How Cold and Frost Improve the Soil . . 336 

Diseases are Classified 34 

How to Avoid Contagion in the Sick 

Room 72 

Bake Pastry 155 

Blend Fruit Flavors 286 

Bring the Drowned to Life. ... 61 

Build a Silo 350 

Care for the Complexion 298 

Care for the Feet 313 

Care for the Hair 306 

Clean Carpets on the Floor. . . . 104 

Clean Hats Properly 140 

Clean Delicate Fabrics 117 

Clean Oil Paintings 102 

Clean Spotted or Old Books. . . 103 

Clean Straw Matting 106 

Clean Tarnished Tin 132 

Clean and Keep Fine Laces. ... 116 

Clear Out Cockroaches 104 

Cook Roasts 155 

Cure a Bad Breath 305 

Destroy the Mole 417 

Do Up Delicate Fabrics 118 

Do Up Lace Curtains 115 

Drive Away Flies 488 

Fasten Iron in Stonework 96 

Fertilize the Farm 330 

Fill Cracks in Plaster 97 

Fill Cracks in a Wooden Floor 97 
Freshen and Preserve Oilcloth 106 

Fry 156 

Harden Lamp Chimneys 94 

Harden Steel 96 



INDEX 



631 



Page 

How to Keep Afloat (Cdntinued) 63 

Keep the Baby Well 52 

Keep Chopping Bowls from 

Splitting 133 

Keep Wood from Splitting 99 

Make Brooms Last Longer. . . . 108 

Make Hard Water Soft 88 

Make Holes in Plate Glass. ... 95 

Make Holes in Steel 95 

Make Housework Easier 129 

Make Ironing Easier 115 

Make Jams 289 

Make Jellies 289 

Make New Rope Limber 90 

Make Oilcloth Wear Well 107 

Make a Rose Jar 148 

Make White Skirts Stiff 114 

Measure for Recipes 157 

Mend a Paper Pail 97 

Paper a Room 107 

Patch Shoes with Cement 79 

Perfect the Form 313 

Preserve Wood from Decay.. . . 92 

Prevent Contagion 35 

Prevent Pitting in Smallpox.. 71 

Purify Foul Water 73 

Reduce the Flesh 314 

Relieve Cut Made by Glass .... 58 
Remove Bits of Dirt from the 

Eye 65 

Remove Stains from Furniture 94 
Remove Stains from Marble. . . 97 

Renew Rusted Stovepipe 133 

Restore Color Destroyed by 

Acid 123 

Restore the Finish to Old Goods 120 

Revive a Fainting Person 63 

Stop Nosebleed 67 

Take the Color from a Black 

Eye 65 

Take Ink Stains Out of Carpets 105 
Take Old Varnish from Fur- 
niture 94 

Treat a Sprain 58 

Treat Smutty Grain 357 

Wash the Baby's Underwear. . 112 
Wash Cotton Goods without 

Fading 122 

Wash Towels Easily 113 

Human Body and Its Construction. ... 20 
Humus and How to Supply It 331 

I 

Ice and Iced Drinks 24 

Ice Chest, Care of 103 

Ice-houses for the Farm 329 

Iced Pineapple 272 

In the Sick Room 40 

Indelible Ink, Recipe for 82 

Index, Look at 154 



Page 

Indian Hash 173 

Indian Pudding, Apple 262 

Baked 26 1 

Pumpkin 261 

Infectious Diseases, How Classified .... 34 
Periods of Isolation 43 

Inflamed Eyes, Lotion for 305 

Face 303 

Ink, How to Keep from Molding 83 

Recipes for 82 

Ink Spots, How to Remove, from 

Carpets 105 

Clothing 119 

Linen 1 20 

Insects from the Ear, How to Re- 
move 54, 66 

Insects on Animals, Destroying 362 

Plants 362 

Insect Bites, Borax for 58 

Simple Remedy for 58 

Insect Pests on the Farm 360 

in the Garden 413 

Intemperance, Fruit as an Antidote for 76 

Introductions, Forms of 601 

Invitations, Forms of , . . 599 

Iron Cement . 80 

Iron Rust, How to Remove 120 

Ironing, Suggestions About 114 

Irrigation for the Farm 328 

Isolation or Quarantine, Period of 43 

Invisible Inks, Recipes for 83 

J 

Jams, How to Make 289 
apanese Cement from Rice 80 

Jellies, How to Make 289 

Jelly, Best Protection for 290 

Jersey Bull, Training ; . . 495 

Jimson Weed, How to Kill 363 

Journal 615 

Jumbles 247 

Juvenile Soup 160 

K 

Kalsomine, Recipe for 87 

Keeping Food from Spoiling 156 

the Horse Warm 480 

Ink from Molding 83 

Paste from Molding 83 

Kid Gloves, Cleaning of 123 

Killing Stumps and Hedge Fences 326 

Kitchen Convenience and Comfort 130 

"Memory Card" 131 

Oilcloth Aprons 139 

Koumyss 293 

L 

Label Paste 81 

Lace Curtains, How to Care for 116 

How to Do Up 115 



632 



INDEX 



Page 
Laces, How to Clean and Keep 116 

Making Stiff and Glossy 114 

Lamb Stew (Neck) 178 

Lambs, How to Care for 534 

Lamp Chimneys, How to Harden 94 

Land Plaster as a Fertilizer 336 

Lard Press, How to Make 190 

Laundering Table Linen 126 

Lawn, Care of 409 

Odd Designs for 147 

Laying Hens and Eggs 447 

Leaf Hopper 417 

Leather Boots Made Waterproof 78 

Liquid Cement for General Use 79 

Leather Seats of Chairs, How Cleaned. 101 

Leche Dulce (Sweet Milk) 274 

Ledger 616 

Left-over Fish, Dainty Dishes from. . . . 164 
Lemon, Uses of, in the Toilet 317 

Value of, in General 71 

Lemon Juice as a Cure for Wakefulness 76 

Lemon Tomato Catsup (new) 192 

Lemonade 294 

Lentils' 216 

Lettuce, Cooked 220 

Mock Artichokes 220 

Lettuce, Qualities of 205 

Lice on Chickens 468 

on Swine 525 

Lice and Scale on Plants 414 

Light Burns, Treatment of 54 

Lima Beans, Growing 385 

Lime, Use of, in Driving Away Rats. . 90 

as a Fertilizer 335 

Lime and Charcoal as Disinfectants ... 73 

Lime and Potatoes 206 

Linen, How to Gloss 121 

Stains Removed from 120 

Linoleum, How to Keep It Bright 107 

Liquid Glue 81 

Liquid Blacking for Leather 85 

Liquid Manure to Force Vegetation .... 368 

Liquid Stove Polish gi 

Literary Entertainments 603 

Lockjaw, Turpentine for 59 

Loss and Gain Account 617 

Lumbago in Horses 486 

Luminous or Night-shining Paints. ... 85 

Lumps in the Teats (see Garget) 503 

Luncheon Rolls 234 

M 

Macaroni 224 

au Gratin 224 

Baked with Cheese 224 

in Bread Crumbs 224 

Custard 274 

with Rice 225 

Soup 159 

Timbale 22i 



Page 

Macaroni and Spaghetti 224 

Mackerel 164 

Mackintosh, How to Clean 122 

Mahogany Stain for Woodwork 93 

Making Curtains Fireproof 99 

Laces Crisp and Glossy 114 

Mange, or Scabies, in Horses 487 

Mange and Lice in Swine 525 

Mangoes 194 

Marble, Removing Spots and Stains 

from 97, 102 

Masculine Exercises Without Apparatus 574 

Massaging the Scalp 306 

Material and Labor Account 617 

Matting, Best Use for mi 

Mayonnaise Dressing 200 

Measles 37 

Measuring Hay, Rules for 343 

Meat Sauces 188 

Meat and Fish as Food 22 

Meats, Curing of 189 

Medicine, How to be Given 46 

Medical Uses of White of Egg 71 

Melange Pickle 198 

Melons 405 

Fattening Prize 405 

Stimulating 405 

Miasmic Diseases 34 

Milk. How to Strain Clean 505 

Keeping Cool 507, 508 

Milk, Cheese and Eggs as Food 23 

Milk Fever in Cattle 502 

Milk Pails, Proper Cleansing of 505 

Miscellaneous Recipes 78 

Mites on Chickens 468 

Mock Chicken Olives (Veal) 181 

Duck (Beef) 176, 177 

Oysters with Chicken 169 

Mocking Birds, Care of 548 

Mole, How to Destroy 417 

Moles, to Remove 302 

Moth-patch Ointment 302 

Moths and How to Fight Them 104 

Mucilage, Paste and Glue 81 

Mud Stains Cleaned from Dresses 122 

Muffins 237 

Bread-crumb 237 

Cranberry 238 

Date 238 

Rice 238 

Rye 238 

Squash 238 

Mules and How to Fatten Them 488 

Mush Bread 241 

Mushroom Salad 201 

Mushrooms, Baked 227 

Fried 227 

Sandwiches 228 

and Macaroni 227 

Mushrooms, Cultivation of 393 



INDEX 



633 



Page 

Mushrooms and Macaroni 227 

Music 603 

Muskmelon, Qualities of 204 

Mosquitoes, to Drive Away 90, 137 

Mustard Pickles 190 

Mustard Plaster, Proper Way to Make . . 69 

Mutton, Boiled Shoulder of 178 

Broth 157 

Ragout 179 

N 

Nail Biting, to Stop 312 

Nail Wounds in Foot, How to Relieve. . 59 

Nasturtium Pickles 195 

New Rope, How to Limber 90 

Nightingale Food 549 

No Idle Land for the Farm 330 

Non-speculative Account 616 

Noodles (Escalloped) and Oysters 166 

Nosebleed, How to Stop 67 

Novel Entertainments 607 

Novelty Potato Salad 200 

Nut Desserts 277 

Nut Salad 202 

Nut and Fruit Salads 201 

O 

Oat Cake 241 

Oatmeal, How to Cook Properly 229 

Sandwiches^ 229 

Oatmeal Drink 297 

Oats 355 

Official Forms of Address 598 

Oil Paintings, How to Clean 102 

Oilcloth, How to Freshen and Preserve 106 

Make Wear Well 107 

Oilcloth Aprons for the Kitchen 139 

Oilcloth and Rug Suggestions 105 

Oily Skin, Lotion for 301 

Old Black Cashmere, How to Make It 

Look New 121 

Old Bones as Fertilizers 334 

Old Goods, How to Restore Finish to. . 120 

Old Hats Made New 140 

Old Varnish, How to Remove from 

Furniture 94 

Omelet, Baked 231 

Celery and Parsley 232 

Corn Bread 231 

Egg (Common) 231 

Maryland 231 

Peach 232 

Salt Pork 231 

Snow 23 1 

Strawberry 232 

Onion Pie 209 

Salad 200 

Sauce 188 

Soup 161 

Onions (Cooked) 209 



Page 
Onions (Cooked) (Continued), Boiled . . 209 

Creamed 210 

Escalloped 210 

Mashed 210 

Roast 209 

Onions, Growing 383 

Qualities of 204 

Ophthalmia, or Eye Disease, in Cattle. 499 

Orange Luminous Paint 85 

Orange Macaroon Pudding 279 

Salad 203 

Sauce 2S5 

Tapioca 279 

Orangeade 296 

Orchard, Banking 422 

Budding 4 2 3 

Enemies of 433 

Fertilizing 4 2 ° 

Forcing Blossoms 422 

Girdling to Produce Fertility 424 

Plowing 419 

Pruning 424 

Thinning 424 

Transplanting into Trenches 421 

Oxalic Acid to Remove Iron Rust from 

Clothing 120 

Oyster Catsup 192 

Soup 158 

Oyster Plant (see Salsify) ' 219, 392 

Oysters, Curry of . . 166 

Fricassee of 166 

Fried 165 

Fritters 166 

Scalloped 166 

P 

Paint, to Remove Finger Marks from. . 109 

Paint Spots, How to Remove 102 

Removed from Clothing 119 

Painted Walls Best for Sick Rooms 72 

Painted Woodwork, How to Clean 103 

Pan Doudy 263 

Pancakes 250 

Adirondack 252 

Bread Griddle Cakes 251 

Buckwheat (Yankee) 251 

Corn-meal 252 

Flannel 251 

French 252 

Pumpkin Griddle Cakes 252 

Rice 252 

Sweet 252 

Papering a Room 107 

Parmesan Croutons 162 

Parrots, Care of 549 

Teaching Them to Talk 549 

Parsnips. Baked 214 

Fried 214 

Qualities of 205 



*34 



INDEX 



Page 

Partnership Agreements 617 

Party Etiquette 588 

Paste, How to Keep from Molding.... 83 

for Mending Rubber Boots 79 

Pastry, How to Bake 155 

Pasturage Grasses 341 

Patient, Care of 46 

Pea Beans Baked with Tomatoes 217 

Pea Soup 162 

Peach Bavarian Cream 268 

Fritters 270 

Ice-cream 269 

Kisses 270 

Pudding 268 

Scallop 269 

Shortcake 270 

Snow 269 

Souffle 269 

Tapioca 268 

Peach-leaf Curl 436 

Peach Trees 429 

Peaches, Compote of 268 

Pickled 269 

Preserved 267 

Peanut Biscuit 241 

Salad 202 

Sauce 277 

Soup 162 

Wafers 277 

Peanuts, Cultivation of 412 

Pear Pudding 270 

Pears, Baked 271 

Compote of 271 

Ginger 271 

Pears, Growing 432 

Peas in Toast Cases 215 

Pecan Salad 202 

Pepper Salad 201 

Period of Isolation or Quarantine 43 

Permanganate of Potash 39 

Personal Hygiene, Suggestions on 315 

Petrolatum for Farm Tools, Machinery, 

etc 324 

Physical Culture (History of) 569 

for Men 574 

for.Women and Children 571 

General Rules for 573 

Modern 570 

Piccalilli 199 

Pickled Cauliflower 197 

Cucumbers (Small) 195 

Peaches 193 

Quinces (Sweet) 194 

Red Cabbage 195 

Walnuts 193 

Pickles, How to Keep from Molding. . 191 

Pickles and Catsups 191 

Pickles, Salads and Vegetables 189 

Pictures Transferred to Glass 95 

Pie, Butternut 254 



P*g« 

Pie (Continued), Cream 254 

Cream Peach 255 

Custard 253 

Date 254 

Lemon 253 

Mince 255 

Pineapple 254 

Pumpkin (Priscilla's) 254 

Pie-plant, Growing 387 

Pig-eating Sows 520 

Pigs (see Hogs) 516 

Pineapple Beverage 297 

Iced 272 

Pudding 272 

Salad 202 

Pinocle 606 

Piquette (French "Soft Drink") 297 

Pittsfield Chocolate Cake 245 

Plaster Casts, Mending 97 

Plate Glass, How to Make Holes in ... . 95 

Plowing, Deep and Shallow 339 

Plum Pudding 256 

Croquettes 257 

English 255 

Plums, Growing 43 1 

Poison Ivy, Oak and Sumac, Remedies 

for 57 

Poisoned Wounds, How to Treat 54 

Poisons and Their Treatment 54 

Polishing Cloth (Best) 108 

Popcorn Balls 293 

Wafers 293 

Poppets 239 

Porcelain Ware 133 

Pores of Skin, Enlarged or Indented.. 301 

Pork 182 

Apple Garnish for 183 

Cakes 183 

Curing of 523 

Postal Suggestions to the Business Man 618 

Potato Bugs 415 

Scab 377 

Potato Soup 160 

Potatoes (Cooked) 206 

Baked 206 

Boiled 206 

Chowder 208 

Colonial 207 

Delmonico 207 

Escalloped 206 

Fried, with Egg 206 

Massasoit 208 

Parker House 207 

Potatoes, Growing 376 

Qualities of 205 

Potatoes and Cheese 208 

with Oysters (Manhattan) 206 

Potted Strawberry Plants, Planting. . . . 397 

Poultry Food, Dairy Products as 444 

Garden Products as 444 



INDEX 



635 



» Page 

Poultry Food— Continued. 

Waste Fruit as 444 

Poultry Recipes (Miscellaneous) 173 

Predicaments, Game of 60S 

Preserved Citron 193 

Preserving and Canning 288 

"Professor of Housewifery" 153 

Profit and Loss Account 617 

Proper Care of Table Silver 128 

Food and Its Importance 21 

Foundation for the House 31 

Heating of the House 32 

Ventilation for the House 32 

Ways to Wash Dishes 131 

Prune Souffle 279 

Puffs, German 277 

White 277 

Pudding, Almond 278 

Apple 264 

Apple and Tapioca 262 

Apple Indian 262 

Bachelors 264 

Baked Pear 271 

Batter 259 

Batter and Fruit 259 

Bread 259 

Bread and;Butter 25g 

Brown Betty 262 

Brown Bread 260 

Cabinet 257 

Christmas 256 

Corn-meal 260 

Cottage 258 

Creole Chocolate 276 

Date 284 

English Plum 255 

Eve's 263 

Fig 285 

Frozen Cabinet 258 

Fruit and Bread 260 

Indian 261 

Lemon Rice 262 

Orange Macaroon 279 

Peach 268 

Pear 270 

Pineapple 272 

Plum 256 

Queen's . , 260 

Sauces 285 

Steamed Chocolate 277 

Suet 258 

Sweet Potato 260 

Swiss 258 

Tapioca Caramel 257 

Toronto 262 

Variety Fruit 257 

Pudding Sauce 286 

Puddings and Desserts 255 

Pumpkin Griddle Cakes 252 

Pumpkins, Growing 392 



Page 

Q 

Queen Bee, Habits and Importance of. . 563 

Quick Relief for Earache 66 

Quince and Tomato Preserves 192 

Quinces, Baked 272 

R 

Rabbit Pie 186 

Spiced 187 

Stew 187 

Rabbits, Care of 552 

Protecting Trees from 440 

Radish, Qualities of 205 

Rainy-day Etiquette 579 

Raspberries, Growing 398 

Raspberry Acid 297 

Sauce 285 

Rats, Use of Lime in Driving Away.. . . 90 

Use of Tar in Driving Away 89 

Rattlesnake Bites Cured by Sweet Oil. . 56 

Favorite Remedy for 57 

Real Estate Account 617 

Recipes, How to Measure for 157 

Red Bird, Care of 549 

Red Face, Remedy for 301 

Nose 301 

Red Fancy Work to Be Avoided at 

Night 142 

Reduction of Flesh (Rules for) 314 

Food to Eat 314 

Double Chin 315 

Exercise to Take. . . 314 

Hips and Abdomen. 315 

Regularity of Habits 30 

Relieving a Scalded Mouth 60 

Relish for Fever or Sore Throat Patients 75 

Remedy Cupboard, What to Put in It. . 51 

Rhubarb, Qualities of 205 

Rice 222 

a la Princess 222 

Baked 261 

Balls for Breakfast 223 

Cakes 246 

Casserole of 223 

Croquettes 222 

Cups 261 

Fried, with Cheese 223 

Parched 222 

Sauce 246 

Spanish 223 

Rice as a Dessert 260 

Rice and Cheese 223 

Rice and Prunes 279 

Roasts, How to Cook 155 

Robin, Care of 550 

Roller Towel to Be Avoided 113 

Rolls 233 

Root Beer 294 

Rose Flavoring Paste 149, 150 

Rose Jar, How to Make 148 



6 3 6 



INDEX 



Page 

Rose Leaf Suggestions 149 

Rosewood Stain for Woodwork 93 

Rotation of Crops 339 

Rough, Harsh Complexion 300 

Roup, Remedies for 466 

Rhubarb, or Pie-plant, Growing 387 

Rubber Boots, Paste for Mending 79 

Rugs Made from Old Ingrain Carpets. . 106 

Rusks 234 

Rust -proof Cement 80 

Rusted Stovepipe, How to Renew 133 

Rye 355 

S 

Safety Paper for Bank Checks 84 

Salad Cups (Novel) 203 

Vegetables 395 

Salads, Healthfulness of 24 

Salads and Salad Dressings 199 

Sales Account 617 

Book 612 

Salsify or Oyster Plant, (Cooked) 219 

Creamed 220 

in Creamed Sauce 220 

Croquettes 219, 220 

Escalloped 219 

Puddings 219 

Salsify (or Oyster Plant), Growing 392 

Salsify Soup 161 

Salt as a Fertilizer 336 

Novel Uses for 133 

Saltpeter for Bugs on Vegetables 413 

San Juan Ham and Eggs 182 

Sandwiches, Breakfast 184 

Chestnut 228 

Indian 184 

Mushroom 228 

Sauces for Meat and Fish 188 

Pudding 285 

Sausage 1 83 

Creamed Bologna 183 

Curing of 190 

Sausage and Rice 223 

Save the Birds 432 

Saving Broken Furniture 94 

Scabies (see Mange) 487 

Scalded Mouth, How to Relieve 60 

Scaly Leg on Fowls 469 

Scarecrows — Novel Suggestions 359 

Scarlet Fever 36 

Scars, How to Remove 303 

Scours iu Calves 503 

Swine 525 

Sealing Wax for Glass Jars 133 

Seed Box for Flowers 409 

Seeds, Buying 369 

Testing 369 

Where Raised 370 

Selection of Seeds 369 

September Salad 201 



Page 

Shade Trees, Austrian Pine 408 

Colorado Blue Spruce 409 

Dwarf Pine 408 

Evergreen 408 

Red Cedar 408 

Scotch Pine 408 

White Spruce 409 

Sheep, Best Country for 529 

Controlling Sex 533 

Dips and Diseases 540 

Feed and Feeding 531 

as Fertilizers 530 

Hoofs (care of) 539 

Mating 532 

Mending Broken Bones of 542 

as Mutton Producers 536 

Shropshires 536 

as Weed Exterminators 530 

as Wool Producers 539 

Shell Fish 165 

Sherbets 273 

Shingles Made Fireproof 91 

Shoe Polishes 124 

Shoes, How to Patch with Cement 79 

Shoes and Gloves 315 

Shrimps (Buttered) with Eggs 167 

Shropshires as Mutton Producers 536 

Shrubs for Screening Foundations 146 

Sick Rooms, Avoiding Contagion in 72 

Care of 37 

Painted Walls Best for 72 

Plants in 72 

Temperature of 45 

Ventilation of 44 

Silence Cloth, How Made 125 

Silk, to Cleanse Grease and Paint from 117 

Silo, How to Build 350 

Silos and Ensilage 349 

Silver Fish, Care of 552 

Silverware, Avoid Wrapping with White 

Paper 129 

Simple Household Remedies (Herbs, 

etc.) 49 

Pudding Sauce 286 

Single Entry - 61 1 

Sizing Whitewashed Walls 107 

Skin Washes 315 

Sleep and Its Value 28 

Sleeve Guards for Housework 131 

Small Fruits, or Berries, Growing 396 

Smallpox 36 

To Prevent Pitting in 71 

Smelts 164 

Smoke, How to Pass Through 54 

Smutty Grain, How to Treat 357 

Soap for the Hair 307 

How to Test 88 

Social Correspondence, Art of 596 

Social Forms and Etiquette 576 

Sod Land for Corn 339 



INDEX 



637 



Page 

Soda Lemonade 294 

Sofa Pillows — Some Novel Ideas 151 

Soft Soap Recipes 87, 88 

Soft Water and the Bath 316 

Soot, How to Keep Out of Chimneys. . . gi 

Sore Throat Patients, Relish for 75 

Souffle, Chocolate 276 

Vanilla 275 

Soup Stock 157 

Soups, Recipes for 157 

Sow and Her Litter 518 

Spaghetti 224 

Italian Way of Serving 225 

Sparrow Extermination 359 

Speculative Account 616 

Spiced Giblet Sauce 174 

Spinach 213 

Chartreuse of 213 

Souffle 213 

Spinach, Growing 396 

Qualities of 205 

Spinach and Cream 213 

and Eggs 213 

Splinter, How to Extract 59 

Spots on Clothing — How to Remove 
Them 119 

Woodwork 102 

Sprain, How to Treat 58 

Spring Remedies 74 

Sprinkler (Handy) ii"5 

Squabs and Their Breeding 476 

Squash, Baked 215 

Dulce 215 

Qualities of 205 

Squash Borers 417 

Squirrel Pot Pie 186 

Stable Manure 333 

Stains, How to Remove from Furniture 94 

Stair Carpets, Double Service for 106 

Stammering Cured at Home 77 

Stamping Ink from Dyes 84 

Starching, How to Do It Successfully. . 113 
Steel, How to Harden 96 

How to Make,Holes in. - 95 

Stonework, How to Fasten Iron in.... 96 

Store Fixtures Account 617 

Stove Cement for Pipe Joints So 

Polish and Polisher 109 

Trimmings (to Clean) 109 

Windows (to Clean) 91 

Stimulants and Condiments 24 

Straw Not to Be Used Under Carpets. . 101 

Straw Hats, to Renovate 141 

Straw Matting, How to Clean 106 

Strawberry Bed, Care of 396 

Street-car Etiquette 581 

Street Etiquette for Men 581 

Women 577 

Stuffed Beet Salad 201 

Figs with Whipped Cream. ,.,.,,,, 285 



Page 

Stuffed Peppers 197 

Stumps, How to Kill 326 

Styes and Their Treatment 65 

Succotash 215 

Suffocation, How to Treat 63 

Sugar Sirup 292 

Sulphur to Bleach Flannels 112 

for Cellar Mold 90 

Sulphurous Acid 40 

Sunstroke and How to Treat It 64 

Suppers 602 

Surface Burns, How to Relieve 59 

Surface Wells, Danger of 33 

Sweet Apple Chutney 192 

Sweet Pickled Quinces 194 

Sweet Potato Croquettes 208 

Pone 208 

with Sausage 209 

Sweet Potatoes, How to Keep 378 

Sweet Tomato Pickle 198 

Swine (see Hogs) 516 

Swiss Chard, Growing 395 

Sympathetic Inks for Secret Writing. . 83 

T 

Table Centerpieces, Suggestions for.... 128 

Linen, Laundering of 126 

Pieces, Growing Ferns for 145 

Silver, Proper Care of 128 

Table Etiquette 587 

Table Linen and the Dining Table. ... 125 

Tar Used in Driving Away Rats 89 

Tar and Turpentine for Diphtheria. ... 70 
Tar Spots Removed from Clothing. . . . 119 
Tarnished Brass, Cleaning and Polish- 
ing g6, 109 

Tin, Cleaning 132 

Tarpaulins, Waterproof Canvas for. ... 98 

Tattoo Marks, How to Remove 302 

Tea, Coffee and Other Drinks 24 

Tea Cakes 234 

Temperature and Pulse 46 

Tent Caterpillar 439 

Thanksgiving Table, Decoration of . . . . 127 

Thermometer, Use of, in Cooking 156 

Thirst, How to Relieve, in the Patient. 4S 
Tickling in Throat, Egg Gargle for .... 230 

Timbales, Meat or Fish 185 

Time for Mating Sheep 532 

Timothy Crop 340 

Tin vs. Earthen Dishes 157 

Tincture of Roses, How to Make 149 

Toad as an Insecticide 415 

Togus Loaf 242 

Toilet Cream (simple) 311 

Soap Scraps 118 

Tomato Catsup 191 

Cheese (New) 192 

Farces 211 

Preserves , , , 19a, 



638 



INDEX 



Page 

Tomato (Continued) Soup 159 

Timbale 211 

Toast 211 

Tomato and Pineapple Salad 202 

Tomatoes (Cooked) 210 

Fried 212 

Preserved Green 212 

Stuffed 210 

Virginia Cream 210 

Tomatoes, Growing 381 

Tooth Paste and Powder 305 

Toothache — A Quick Relief 67 

Towels to Be Dried Thoroughly 113 

How to Wash Easily 113 

Training the Jersey Bull 495 

Traveler's Ink, Recipe for 82 

Trees, Lawn, Shrubs and Flowers 408 

Trial Balance 616 

Trifles 273 

Lemon 272 

Plum 272 

Tripe, Recipes for Cooking 185 

Turkey 171 

Baking 172 

Chestnut Stuffing for 172 

Cream 173 

Molds 172 

Salmi 172 

Selecting 171 

Turkeys 471 

Turnips, Baked 214 

Growing 392 

Turpentine for Diphtheria 70 

Lockjaw 59 

Typhoid Fever 37 

U 

Uncooked Spanish Pickle 197 

Umbrella, How to Care for It 97 

Underwaists, An Idea for 139 

Utility Boxes, How to Make 152 

V 

Value of Plants in the Sick Room 72 

Value of System in Housecleaning 100 

Variety in Your House Arrangements. . 150 

Vaseline, Use of, by Women 316 

Veal 179 

Cold Pressed 1 82 

Cream Croquettes 181 

Jellied 181 

Mock Chicken Olives 181 

Patties 181 

Pot Roast 179 

Ragout 179 

Sausage 182 

Scallop 181 

Stewed Knuckle of 180 

Stewed Shin of 180 

Vegetable Garden 372 



Page 
Vegetable Garden ( Continued), Plant- 
ing 373 

Weeding 374 

Vegetable Soup without Meat 161 

Vegetables as Food 23 

Harvesting 375 

with Medicinal Properties 50 

Properties of 203 

Vermin-proof Granary, Building 362 

Ventilation of Bedrooms 30 

Vines, Propagating 404 

for the Walls 14S 

Vineyards, Cultivating 403 

Planting 402 

Pruning 4°3 

Violet Luminous Paint 86 

Visiting Etiquette 582 

W 

Waffles 253 

Corn-meal 253 

German Toast 253 

Whole Wheat 253 

Wakefulness Cured by Lemon Juice.. . . 76 

Walking and Its Effects 314 

Wall Creepers and Vines 145, 410 

Wallpaper, Grease Spots Taken from. . 108 

Walnut Stain for Woodwork 93 

Warm Food for Hogs 523 

Warts, Easy Ways to Remove 68, 303 

on Horses 486 

Washday Labors Lightened 118 

Washing Cotton Goods without Fading, 122 

Flannels without Shrinking no 

Wasp Stings, How to Soothe Them 57 

Waste Water Pipes, How to Keep 

Clean 98 

Water Supply, How to Guard 33 

Watercress for Cooking 221 

Qualities of 205 

Watermelon Culture 407 

Waterproof Cement for Iron Pipes 80 

Cloth 99 

Glue 80 

Wedding Etiquette 592 

Weeds in the Lawn — To Destroy 145 

Weight, How to Increase 314 

Weights (Minimum) of Produce 622 

Welsh Rarebit 233 

What to Do in Case of Suffocation 63 

Do with Worn-out Blankets. ... 135 

Put in a Remedy Cupboard 51 

Wheat 353 

Cultivation of 354 

Diseases of 354 

Manure 354 

When to Bathe 27 

One Falls in the Water 63 

When and Why to Eat Fruit 75 



INDEX 



639 



Page 

Whirlwind, Game of 608 

Whist, Etiquette of 604 

French 605 

White Cloth, to Remove Mildew and 

Stains from 117, 121 

White Icing for Cake 248 

White Ink, Recipe for 82 

White Mice 552 

White Rats 552 

White of Egg, Medical Uses of 71 

White Skirts, How to Make Stiff 114 

Whitewash Recipes 86 

Who Knows That Nose? Game of 609 

Whoopingcough 37 

Windows, Easy Way to Clean 101 

Winter Food for Chickens 451 

Poultry House 449 

Woman's Toilet 298 

Women, Street Etiquette for 577 

Women and Children, Physical Culture 
for 571 



Page 

Wood, How to Keep, from Splitting. . . 99 

How to Preserve, from Decay 92 

for Repairs 326 

Made Fireproof 92 

Wood, Water and Ice for the Farm .... 325 

Wood Ashes as a Fertilizer 333 

Woodenware and Cooking Tins 133 

Woodwork Stains 93 

Wool Sheep, Best Varieties of 539 

Woolen Clothing, Advantages of 25 

Woolen Goods — to Shrink Properly in 

Woolly Aphis 441 

Worms in Horses 48s 

Sheep 541 

Worn Tablecloths, Good Uses for 127 

Writing Ink from Dyes 84 

Y 

Yellow Luminous Paint 85 

Yellowish Brown Luminous Paint 86 

Yorkshire Pudding 242 



1903 









(JUL 



